Jean Gaspard Itard

Jean Itard (19th Century painting)

Montessori Restoration and Translation Project

Jean Itard
Born	Jean Marc Gaspard Itard (1774-04-24)April 24, 1774 Oraison, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France
Died	July 5, 1838(1838-07-05) (aged 64) Paris, US
Occupation	Physician
Known for	Work with the feral child, Victor of Aveyron

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Jean Marc Gaspard Itard (24 April 1774, Oraison, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence – 5 July 1838, Paris) was a renowned French physician from Provence. He is best known for his work with Victor of Aveyron, a feral child.

Biography

Early Life and Career

Born in Oraison, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Itard, lacking a formal university education, initially worked at a bank. He was compelled to join the army during the French Revolution. Despite his lack of formal training, Itard began working as a physician. His exceptional performance at a military hospital in Soliers led to his appointment as deputy surgeon at the Val-de-Grâce (Hôpital d'instruction des armées du Val-de-Grâce) military hospital in Paris in 1796. In 1799, he became a physician at the National Institution for Deaf Mutes.

Mentorship and Innovation

In Paris, Itard was mentored by the eminent physician René Laennec, the inventor of the stethoscope. Itard made his own medical breakthroughs, including the description of pneumothorax in 1803, a condition further elaborated upon by Laennec in 1819. In 1821, Itard made significant contributions to the field of otology, documenting over 170 case studies in a major publication. His innovations in this field include the invention of the Eustachian catheter, often referred to as "Itard's catheter". He also described a numbness condition in the tympanic membrane during otosclerosis, known as "Itard-Cholewa Symptom".

Later Life and Death

As the chief physician at the Institution Royale des sourds-muets, Itard documented the first known case of Tourette syndrome in 1825, observed in Marquise de Dampierre, a noblewoman. Itard passed away in Paris, France, at the age of 64 on July 5, 1838.

Work on Victor of Aveyron

He is known as an educator of the deaf, and tried his educational theories in the celebrated case of Victor of Aveyron, dramatized in the 1970 motion picture Wild Child The Wild Child directed by François Truffaut, who also played Itard. However, he was disappointed with the progress he made with Victor. Itard was known to conduct experiments on the deaf students of the Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets à Paris in useless attempts to restore their hearing, including delivering electrical shocks, leech therapy, ear surgeries, and various types of internal and external medicinal applications.

Works

Itard's significant works include "An Historical Account of the Discovery and Education of a Savage Man, Or of the First Developments, Physical and Moral, of the Young Savage Caught in the Woods Near Aveyron, in the Year 1798" (1802), and a two-volume work on the diseases of the ear and hearing, "Traité des maladies de l'oreille et de l'audition" (1821). His last major work, published in July 1825, discussed involuntary functions of the locomotive, grasping, and vocal apparatus. Itard, without a university education and working at a bank, was forced to enter the army during the French Revolution, but presented himself as a physician at that time. After successfully working as an assistant physician at a hospital military hospital in Soliers, in 1796, he was appointed deputy surgeon at Val-de-Grâce (Hôpital d'instruction des armées du Val-de-Grâce) military hospital in Paris, and in 1799, physician at the National Institution for Deaf Mutes.

• Itard, Jean Marc Gaspard (1802). An Historical Account of the Discovery and Education of a Savage Man, Or of the First Developments, Physical and Moral, of the Young Savage Caught in the Woods Near Aveyron, in the Year 1798. London: Richard Phillips. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
• Itard, Jean Marc Gaspard (1821). Traité des maladies de l'oreille et de l'audition, Tome premier (in French). Paris: Méquignon-Marvis. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
• Itard, Jean Marc Gaspard (1821). Traité des maladies de l'oreille et de l'audition, Tome second (in French). Paris: Méquignon-Marvis. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
• Itard, Jean Marc Gaspard (July 1825). "Mémoire sur quelques fonctions involontaires des appareils de la locomotion, de la préhension et de la voix". Archives générales de médecine (in French). 3 (8): 385–407. Retrieved 15 June 2020.

René Laennec

In Paris, Itard was a student of distinguished physician René Laennec, inventor of the stethoscope (in 1816). Laennec was a few years younger but had a formal education at the university at Nantes and later became a lecturer and professor of medicine at the Collège_de_France. Itard described pneumothorax in 1803; Laennec would provide a fuller description of the condition in 1819.

Other works

In 1821, Itard published a major work on otology, describing the results of his medical research based on over 170 detailed cases. He is credited with the invention of a Eustachian catheter that is referred to as "Itard's catheter". Numbness in the tympanic_membrane during otosclerosis has the eponymous name of "Itard-Cholewa Symptom".

In 1825, as the head physician at the Institution Royale des sourds-muets, Itard was credited with describing the first case of Tourette syndrome in Marquise de Dampierre, a woman of nobility.

On 5 July 1838, at the age of 64, Jean Marc Gaspard Itard died in Paris, France.

External links

• Works by Jean Marc Gaspard Itard at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Jean Gaspard Itard at Internet Archive