Jacques Guillemeau

Drawing of Jacques Guillemeau (1550-1613)

Jacques Guillemeau (1550–1613) was a French surgeon from Orléans. He is credited for making pioneer contributions in the fields of obstetrics and ophthalmology.

He was a surgeon at Hôtel-Dieu de Paris, and a favored student of Ambroise Paré (1510–1590), who was also his father-in-law. Guillemeau, like Paré, was a surgeon to French royalty.

In 1584 Guillemeau published Traite des maladies de l'oeil (Treatise of Eye Diseases), which is considered to be one of the best Renaissance-era works in ophthalmic medicine. Also, he is credited for providing the first description involving repair of palpebral coloboma, an eyelid defect he referred to as paupieres accurcies.

In 1609 he published a work on obstetrics titled De l'heureux accouchement des femmes, in which he first described a method of assisted breech delivery that was later popularized by other physicians, and sometimes goes by the name of "Mauriceau-Smellie-Veit maneuver". Guillemeau was a practitioner of the podalic version for use in cases of placenta praevia, a procedure that was earlier revived by Ambroise Paré.

Other noted publications by Guillemeau include Tables Anatomiques and La Chirurgie Française.

References

• ILAB.org Brief essay on "Traité des maladies de lóeil"
• [1] Obstetrics and Gynecology: A History and Iconography
• Mauriceau-Levret manipulation @ Who Named It
• [2] Milestones in Midwifery, pioneers at the Hôtel-Dieu