Camille-Melchior Gibert

Camille-Melchior Gibert

Camille-Melchior Gibert (18 September 1797 – 30 July 1866) was a French dermatologist who was a native of Paris.

He studied medicine in Paris, where in 1818–19 he served as an interne to Laurent-Théodore Biett at the Hôpital Saint-Louis. In 1822 he received his medical doctorate and in 1826 he obtained his agrégation. From 1836 he was a physician at the Hôpital Lourcine, and from 1840 to 1863, was associated with the Hôpital Saint-Louis. In 1847 he became a member of the Académie de médecine. He died during the 1866 Paris cholera epidemic.

Gibert is remembered for providing the first accurate description of a papulosquamous skin disorder that he named pityriasis rosea. Historically, this condition was also referred to as "Gibert disease". His best written work on skin diseases was a book called "Traité pratique des maladies spéciales de la peau" (second edition, 1840).

In 1859, with Dr. Joseph-Alexandre Auzias-Turenne (1812–1870), Gibert took part in controversial experiments in which three volunteers were inoculated with secondary syphilis.

References

• Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology & Venereology (biographical information)