Avi Ohry
Tel Aviv, Israel

Geneva, Switzerland is associated with many famous physicians and scientists. Some have been memorialized in street names, buildings, and institutions.

Michael Servetus (ca. 1511–1553), a physician and theologian who lived most of his life in France,¹ fled to Geneva after being condemned by Catholic authorities in France for the publication of Christianismi Restitutio. He was denounced by John Calvin, a principal instigator of the Protestant Reformation, and was burned at the stake for heresy by order of the city’s governing council. The full culpability of Calvin in the execution has been the subject of historical debate.² The address of the Faculty of Medicine in Geneva is Rue Michel-Servet 1.

Marguerite Champendal (1870–1928) was a Swiss doctor and educator from Geneva. She was the first woman from the city to obtain a doctorate in medicine at the University of Geneva (1900). She founded a center for distributing pasteurized milk for infants there, as well as a nursing school.³ Chemin Doctoresse-Champendal is named for her in Geneva.

Horace-Bénédict de Saussure (1740–1799), a pioneering natural philosopher, performed research in geology, meteorology, and physics. The de Saussure family was an important part of Geneva’s intellectual and scientific history in the eighteenth century. The Maison de Saussure is a historical landmark and is today a hotel.⁴ Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913), the founder of modern linguistics, also called Maison de Saussure home, as well as his son Raymond de Saussure (1894–1971), a Swiss psychoanalyst and the first president of the European Psychoanalytical Federation.⁵

Jean de Carro (1770–1857) was a physician who worked to promote vaccination against smallpox.⁶

Théodore Tronchin (1709–1781), a pupil of Herman Boerhaave (1668–1738), was an influential eighteenth-century physician. Among his patients were Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot. In 1762, Tronchin was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 1779 a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.^7,8

Gaspard Vieusseux (1746–1814) provided an early description of bacterial meningitis after the 1805 epidemic of meningitis near Geneva. He made the first clinical description of lateral medullary infarction, but later this syndrome was named “Wallenberg’s syndrome.”⁹

Charles-Gaspard De la Rive (1770–1834) was a physician who specialized in the treatment of mental illness and later worked as a physicist.¹⁰

Jean-Louis Prévost (1838–1927) was a neurologist and physiologist. In Geneva, he collaborated with Augustus Volney Waller (1816–1870). In 1876 he became a professor of therapy at the University of Geneva and in 1897 succeeded Moritz Schiff (1823–1896) as professor of physiology until 1913. Joseph Jules Dejerine (1849–1917) was his pupil. Prévost’s law describes physical findings in unilateral brain lesions.^11,12

Jean Piaget (1896–1980) was a psychologist known for his monumental work on child development.¹³

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), a philosopher and writer from Geneva, expressed precise ideas about medicine, among other topics.¹⁴

References

1. Dunea G. Michael Servetus. Hektoen International Fall 2017. https://hekint.org/2017/11/14/michael-servetus-ca-1511-1553/
2. Michael Servetus. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Servetus
3. Dreifuss JJ. Les premières étudiantes à la Faculté de médecine et leurs activités professionnelles à Genève [The first women students of the medical faculty and their professional activities in Geneva]. Gesnerus. 1991;49 Pt 3-4:429-38. French.
4. Maison De Saussure, Geneva: Visitor Guide, Hours, Tickets & Historic Insights. Audiala. https://audiala.com/en/switzerland/geneva/maison-de-saussure
5. Vermorel H. Raymond de Saussure: First president of the European Psychoanalytical Federation. Int J Psychoanal. 1998 Feb;79(Pt 1):73-81.
6. Sigerist HE. Letters of Jean de Carro to Alexandre Marcet, (1794-1817). Bull Hist Med Suppl. 1950;12:1-78. 
7. Théodore Tronchin. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Théodore_Tronchin
8. Van Heiningen TW. Theodore Tronchin (1709-1781) and his friend Louis de Jaucourt (1704-1779). Hist Sci Med. 2016 ;50(3):289-298.
9. Domingo P, Pomar V, Mauri A, Barquet N. Standing on the shoulders of giants: two centuries of struggle against meningococcal disease. Lancet Infect Dis. 2019;19(8):e284-e294.
10. Benguigui I. Charles-Gaspard de la Rive (1770-1834) médecin aliéniste et physicien [Charles-Gaspard de la Rive (1770-1834), psychiatrist and physicist]. Gesnerus. 1985;42(3-4):245-52. French. 
11. Jean-Louis Prévost. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Louis_Prévost
12. Langer KG, Bogousslavsky J. J.L. Prévost, Eye Deviation, and Early Steps in Space Lateralization: “Looking At or Away”. Neurology. 2022;98(16):669-673.
13. Voyat G. Jean Piaget: 1896-1980. Am J Psychol. 1981;94(4):645-8.