Antoine Louis

Antoine Louis (February 13, 1723 - May 20, 1792) was a French surgeon and physiologist who was born in Metz. He was associated with Parisian hospitals for much of his career, including the Salpêtrière and Hôpital de la Charité.

Originally trained as a military surgeon, Louis became a professor of physiology in 1750. In 1764 he was appointed secretary to the Académie Royale de Chirurgie. He published numerous articles on surgery, including several biographies of surgeons who died during his lifetime. Louis is credited with designing a prototype of the guillotine. This device however, is named after French physician Joseph Ignace Guillotin (1738-1814), who was an advocate of a more humane method of capital punishment. For a period of time after its invention, the guillotine was called a louisette.

Another name for the sternal angle is the Angle of Louis, which is the point of junction between the manubrium and the body of the sternum.