Astruc, jean

(¤ 1684, † 1766). Born in Sauve/Auvergne, he came from a Protestant pastoral family. Astruc became professor of pharmacology and anatomy in Montpellier, and later worked in Toulouse and Paris. He was the personal physician to the kings of Poland and France, a man of unusual literacy and a significant "systematizing talent". His most important work "De morbis venereis libri sex" was first published in 1736 in 6 books and then in 1740 in 9 books. There are 22 different editions and translations. In these works Astruc has collected over 600 casuistics of various venereal diseases, especially syphilis.

1. Astruc J (1738) De morbis venereis libri sex. In quibus disseritur tum de origine, propagatione et contagione horumce affectum in genere: tum de singulorum natura, aetiologia & therapia, cum brevi analysi & epicrisi operum plerorumque quae de eodem argumento scripta sunt. Paris (Basel)
2. Holubar K (2009) Early spring 2009: an aperçu historique. JDDG 7: 278-279