ABOVE ALL A PHYSICIAN

Jeanne Carhonnier combines her knowledge of medicine and her deep respect for one of its crusaders in an absorbing biography of Theophile Laennee, inventor of the ""above all a physician"". His life is vigorously portrayed against the days of the French Revolution and the era immediately following it. Under the of his uncle, a doctor in Brittany, Theophile began his medical studies during his teens. After receiving a degree from the University in Paris, his interests turned toward pathology, and in subsequent years he wrote many papers disproving current theories in that area. Harassed by a dependent family, Theophile nevertheless divided his enormous energy between research and private practice. By chance, a game he witnessed played in the streets of Paris led him to the invention that was to pave the way toward the more accurate diagnosis of lung and heart ailments. Unpretentious, not essentially geared toward the student of science, this is an engrossing biography.