Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis

Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis (1787-1872, was a French physician, known for introducing the use of numerical method in the field of medicine, that is, the idea that knowledge about the disease, its history, clnical presentation and treatment could be derived from aggregated patients data. He became known for his research on tuberculosis and typhoid fever and for the controversy that opposed him to François Joseph Victor Broussais about the use of bloodletting in the treatment of pneumonitis (today pneumonia). It was in 1835 that Louis published Researches sur les effets de la saigneé dans quelques maladies inflammatoires in which he utilized the numerical method to prove that bloodletting was an ineffective treatment for the various fevers.

References Morabia A (2004). Pierre-Charles-Alexandre Louis and the evaluation of bloodletting. The James Lind Library (www.jameslindlibrary.org) Accessed Thursday 31 August 2006.