[Homage to Doctor Theodore Vetter (1916-2004). President of the French Society of the History of Medicine from 1976 to 1978].
Théodore Vetter (Strasbourg, 1916, June 19th - 2004, July 8th) was qualified as a medical doctor in medicine in 1948 in Strasbourg, and then followed complementary courses in medical biology in Paris. He realized most of his career as an adviser for medical research in pharmaceutical industry. He presented an early talent for drawing and graphic arts, encouraged by Georges Ritleng (1875-1972), headmaster of the School of decorative arts in Strasbourg. One expression of the artistic gift of Th. Vetter consisted in design and making of ex-libris, field in which he acquired an international reputation. In total, he realized about two hundred ex-libris, mostly for physicians. Also attracted by the history of medicine, he became a member of the Société Française d'Histoire de la Médecine; he was general secretary from 1965 to 1970, then he became vice-president and president from 1976 to 1978. He was the author of about a hundred works concerning the history of medicine; all were characterized by a great rigour and by the direct use of original sources. Among his main works, his studies on the oculist Jacques Daviel (1693-1762), popularizer of the surgery of cataract, on the surgeon Claude Nicolas Le Cat (1700-1768), on the birth of pathology, a commented edition of the complete works of Hippocrates, translated by M.P.E. Littré (1801-1881), and numerous papers on the history of medicine in Strasbourg and Alsace.
Le Minor
Jean-Marie
JM
Institut d'Anatomie Normale (EA 3428), Faculté de Médecine (ULP), F-67085 Strasbourg.
D000288:Administrative Personnel / Q000266:history; D001154:Art / Q000266:history; D005602:France; D006663:Historiography; D006666:History of Medicine; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D012952:Societies / Q000266:history / Q000458:organization & administration