Jean Landry

Who was Jean Landry?

Jean Baptiste Octave Landry de Thézillat was a French physician and medical researcher. He is credited with discovering the paralytic disease Guillain-Barré syndrome

He was born in Limoges, Haute-Vienne in 1826, and became a doctor because it was the profession of his uncle. In the 1850s, he treated victims of cholera in Oise, a French department, and was involved in disease research from then on. In 1857, he married Claire Giustigniani, who lived on for 36 years after his death.

In 1859, he documented ten cases of the disease, and termed them "ascending paralysis". He noted three different forms:

Ascending paralysis without sensory signs or symptoms.

Ascending paralysis with concomitant anaesthesia and analgesia.

Progressing generalised disorder with paralysis and sensory signs.

He died in Auteuil in 1865, having caught cholera from patients he was treating.