Jacques-René Tenon

Infobox Scientist
name = Jacques-René Tenon
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caption = Jacques-René Tenon
birth_date = February 21 1724
birth_place = Joigny
death_date = January 16, 1816
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nationality = France
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field = surgery
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doctoral_advisor = Jacques-Bénigne Winslow
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Jacques-René Tenon (February 21 1724 - January 16, 1816) was a French surgeon who was born near the town of Joigny. He studied medicine in Paris, where one of his instructors was Jacques-Bénigne Winslow (1669-1760). For several years he was associated with the Salpêtrière, and in 1757 attained the chair of pathology of the College of Surgery. In 1759 he became a member of the French Academy of Sciences.

In 1788 Tenon published the "Mémoire sur les hôpitaux de Paris" (Memoirs on the Hospitals of Paris) which was a concise and detailed account of French hospitals. It was concerned with aspects such as hygiene, patient care and environmental conditions of hospitals. This publication was a catalyst regarding efforts to replace the Hôtel-Dieu of Paris by a committee from the Academy of Sciences, whose members included Tenon, and famous scientists such as Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (1743-1794), Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (1736-1806) and Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749-1827).

In the 18th century, the Hôtel-Dieu was notoriously overcrowded, unsanitary and susceptible to fire. Architect Bernard Poyet (1742-1829) proposed a new Hôtel-Dieu on Île des Cygnes on the Seine River at a price of 12 million livres, while members of the Academy planned for four new hospitals far from the Seine (Saint-Louis in the north, Holy-Anne in the south, the Roquette in the east, and in the west the abbey of Holy-Périne of Chaillot). Although plans for building the four new hospitals to replace the Hôtel-Dieu initially looked promising, the project was met with resistance and eventually shelved in the early 1790s.

Today the Hôpital Tenon in Paris is named after him, as is the capsule of Tenon, an anatomical structure in the posterior part of the eye which he described in 1806.

References

* [http://books.google.com/books?id=uFLwcEZMrOcC&pg=PA162&lpg=PA162&dq=%22jacques+rene+tenon%22&source=web&ots=YhykCimdlC&sig=X-QCtgBr9Sk_bLRzAo5Zt8mzSTE#PPA162,M1 Transfer of the Hotel Dieu; Google Books]
*Citation
id = PMID:12789585
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12789585
last=Tenon
first=Jacque-René
last2=Naus
first2=J
last3=Blanken
first3=R
publication-date=2003 Mar
year=2003
title=Anatomical observations on some parts of the eye and eyelids. 1805.
volume=11
issue=1
periodical=Strabismus
pages=63-8
*Citation
id = PMID:12789584
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12789584
id = PMID:11939139
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11939139
last=Simonsz
first=H J
publication-date=2003 Mar
year=2003
title=First description of eye muscle 'poulies' by Tenon in 1805.
volume=11
issue=1
periodical=Strabismus
pages=59-62
*Citation
id = PMID:12515947
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12515947
last=Roth
first=A
last2=Mühlendyck
first2=H
last3=De Gottrau
first3=Ph
publication-date=2002 Nov
year=2002
title= [The function of Tenon's capsule revisited]
volume=25
issue=9
periodical=Journal français d'ophtalmologie
pages=968-76
*Citation
id = PMID:362836
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/362836
last=Dechaume
first=M
last2=Huard
first2=P
last3=Imbault-Huart
first3=M J
publication-date=1978 Jun
year=1978
title= [Jacques-René Tenon, odontologist and stomatologist]
volume=
issue=122
periodical=Actualités odonto-stomatologiques
pages=221-33