- Paul-Louis Simond
Paul-Louis Simond (
July 30 ,1858 - 1947) was a Frenchbacteriologist who was born in Beaufort-sur-Gervanne. He studied medicine inBordeaux and later joined thePasteur Institute inParis . He is primarily remembered for his association with the Pasteur Institute and his travels worldwide conducting research on pestilent diseases.Simond joined the Pasteur Institute in 1895, and in 1898 during a mission throughout Asia, discovered the mechanism for transmission of
bubonic plague . He demonstrated that the plague was a disease of rats, spread by "Xenopsylla cheopis " (rat fleas) which transmit the disease to humans. Earlier, in 1894Alexandre Yersin (1863-1943), also of the Pasteur Institute, identified the plaguebacillus as "yersinia pestis ". Later Simond travelled to Brazil andMartinique where he studiedyellow fever and its transmission bymosquito es.Simond had a keen interest in
botany ; during his stay as a colonial doctor inIndochina from 1914 until 1917, he collectedorchid s and had a local artist create watercolor paintings of them. He amassed a collection of 226watercolor paintings of orchids which were presented to the "Phanerogamie of the Museum National d'Histoire naturelle" in 1947. Simond was also a co-founder of the Pharo School of Tropical Medicine inMarseilles .References
* [http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1296502 Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine; Plague Transmission by Fleas]
* [http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.pasteur.fr/infosci/archives/sim0.html&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=2&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522Paul%2BLouis%2BSimond%2522%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN Pasteur Institute, Paul-Louis Simond]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.