Frère Jacques Beaulieu

Frère Jacques Beaulieu (also known as Frère Jacques Baulot [ [http://beaufort39.free.fr/baulot.htm baulot ] ] ["Un célèbre lithotomiste franc-comtois : Jacques Baulot dit Frère Jacques (1651-1720)", E. Bourdin, Besançon, 1917] ) (1651-1720) was a travelling lithotomist with scant knowledge of anatomy and was also a Dominican friar. Beaulieu performed the frequently deadly procedure in France into the early 1700s.

The urologic community often claims Beaulieu is subject of the French nursery rhyme "Frère Jacques", but this is not well-established. A possible connection between "Frère Jacques" and Beaulieu , as claimed by Irvine Loudon ["Western Medicine", Irvine Loudon, Oxford University Press, Dec 1, 2001, ISBN: 0199248133] and many others, was explored by J. P. Ganem and C. C. Carson ["Frère Jacques Beaulieu: from rogue lithotomist to nursery rhyme character", Ganem JP, Carson CC, J Urol. 1999 Apr;161(4):1067-9.] without finding any evidence for a connection.

Some have suggested that "Frère Jacques" was instead written to mock the Jacobin monks of France (Jacobins are what the Dominicans are called in Paris). [ [http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic2852.htm eMedicine - Bladder Stones : Article by Joseph Basler ] ]

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