Jean-Louis-Marc Alibert

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Jean-Louis-Marc Alibert (May 2, 1768 - November 4, 1837) was a French dermatologist. Originally planning to enter the priesthood, Alibert didn't begin studying medicine until he was 26 years old.

In 1802 he began his career at the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris, where he administered to patients with leprosy, syphilis, and other skin disorders. However, during this period in time, dermatology was unknown as a specific branch of medicine. Alibert believed that when diagnosing skin disorders, that several criteria needed to be used. He devised a system of classifying skin diseases, similar to the method Antoine Laurent de Jussieu used in botany. Alibert first classified dermatological disorders according to outer appearance, then he divided them into what he called families, generations and species. This system of classification was represented pictorially as the "Tree of Dermatoses".

Alibert was a prodiguous writer; his best known work being the illustrated Descriptions des maladies de la peau. Also a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma known as Mycosis Fungoides is sometimes referred to as Alibert-Bazin syndrome, and another term for "barber's itch" is Alibert's mentagra.

[edit] External sites:

• Who Named It?; Listing of written works by Alibert
• Early History of French Dermatology