Antoine Portal

Baron Antoine Portal (1742-1832 CE) was a French anatomist, doctor and medical historian who was the founding president of Académie Nationale de Médecine, created in 1820 by the order of king Louis XVIII. Born on January 5 1742 in Gaillac he was the eldest among 12 siblings. He studied medicine in Albi, Toulouse and Montpellier and started his career as a teacher of anatomy. He moved to Paris in 1766 to take up similar post. He was appointed to the prestigious position of professor of anatomy to the Jardin du roi. Louis XVIII named him the first doctor of King, a post he served under Charles X as well. His close relationship with the King led to the creation of Académie de médecine (now Académie nationale de médecine) for which he was lifelong president.

In 1803 he published "Cours d'anatomie médicale", a 5-volume work on medical history. He was probably the first to describe amyloid in liver in 1789 when he noted a lard-like substance in an elderly woman's liver. He was the first to describe bleeding due to esophageal varices. He also published article on clinical features of epilepsy.

At the age of 90 years he died in Paris on July 23, 1832 and was buried in Saint-Pierre de Montmartre