First contributors in the history of leukemia

Figure 1 Alfred Velpeau (1795-1867). A: Alfred Armand Louis Marie Velpeau was born on 18 May 1795 in the Touraine village of Bréches in France, where his father was a farrier. He was expected to follow his father’s footsteps, but a chance event changed his life. Interested in medicine, in an attempt to dispel the sadness of a depressed young girl, he poisoned her with hellebore. The local physician called for help was so impressed by his knowledge and intelligence that he introduced him to Vincent Gourand, surgeon at the hospital of Tours, who in turn passed him to Pierre-Fidéle Bretonneau in 1816; B: Velpeau was 21 years old[49,50]. Bretonneau was one of the outstanding physicians of his day in France. He quickly recognized the exceptional talent of his young assistant, treated him like a son, and trained him in clinical medicine and pathology. By 1819, Velpeau was “officier de santé” at the hospital. In 1820, Bretonneau sent him to Paris and obtained for him a position in the Saint-Louis hospital. There Velpeau gained both the anatomy and physiology prizes, while also teaching junior medical students. In 1823, Velpeau qualified and was appointed “agrégé de medicine” with honors, writing his thesis in Latin under the direction of Laennec on intermittent and chronic fevers, based on studies made with Bretonneau in Tours. At the age of 29 years, Velpeau came to be appointed to the junior surgical staff of various hospitals: Saint-Antoine, La Pitié, and La Charité. In 1828, he passed the “Chirurgical”, a higher degree in surgery, and was appointed surgeon to La Pitié. Five years later, he took the university chair of clinical surgery, a position he then held for the next 33 years. Throughout his life, his work was enormous. His published works included 340 titles. There were texts on surgical anatomy, obstetrics, operative medicine, embryology, and diseases of the uterus and breast. Velpeau’s “hernia”, “canal”, “deformity”, and a “pressure bandage” for the treatment of phlebitis and burns are among the items linked with his name that have come down to us. Velpeau was elected to the Academy of Medicine in 1832 and to the prestigious Academy of Science in 1843. In 1860 honoured and famous, he visited Bréches, where he had been born. He gave a substantial sum of money to renovate the village church; C: His generosity is still remembered in a stained glass window there, in which he is represented in his professional dress with the inscription “Hommage de reconnaissance au Docteur Velpeau, fondateur de cette église”. In 1867, Velpeau caught flu. He died on 24^th of August, few days after performing an amputation. His funeral at Saint-Thomas d’Aquin and at the cemetery of Montparnasse was magnificent. It was a fitting end to the life of a man who, from humble origins, had by his own endeavours risen to the front rank of his profession as one of the leading surgeons of the century.