Laurent-Théodore Biett

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Laurent-Théodore Biett (1781-1840) was a Swiss dermatologist who practiced medicine at the Hôpital Saint-Louis in Paris. He is chiefly remembered for introducing into France an anatomical method of analyzing skin diseases; a system that was developed by British dermatologists Robert Willan (1757-1812) and Thomas Bateman (1778-1821).

Biett was not known for his writings, however one of his students Pierre Louis Alphée Cazenave took assiduous notes of his lectures. In 1828 Casanave published Abregé pratique des maladies de la peau, which was a compilation of Biett's teachings and was to became a major work in dermatology. Casenave also coined the term lupus erythematosus, which he derived from Biett's symptomatic descriptions of the disease.

Associated eponym:

• Bietts collarette: a syphilitic symptom in which the center papule is encircled by a ring of scales.

External sites:

• Lexicon of Cutaneous Terms
• Early Days of Dermatology