Georges-Fernand Widal

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Georges-Fernand-Isidor Widal; (born on March 9, 1862 in Dellys, Algeria and died in Paris on January 14, 1929) was a French physician.

From 1886 to 1888 he devoted himself to public demonstrations of the researches of the faculty of pathological anatomy, and during the 2 years following was in charge of a course in bacteriology in the laboratory of Professor Victor André Cornil. In 1895 he was appointed visiting physician to the hospitals of Paris, and in 1904 became an instructor in the faculty of medicine. In 1905 he became a physician to the Hôpital Cochin, and was in charge of the medical clinics at the same institution.

Widal was the author of a remarkable series of essays on infectious diseases, erysipelas, diseases of the heart, liver, nervous system, etc., besides being a prolific contributor to various medical journals and encyclopedias. His name is associated with the Widal test, which is a diagnostic test for typhoid fever, and with hematologist Georges Hayem he described acquired haemolytic anaemia, which was historically referred to as the "Hayem-Widal syndrome".

[edit] Literary works

• Etude sur l'infection puerpérale, 1889
• La cure de déchloruration dans le mal de Bright, 1906
• Maladies des veines et des lymphatiques, 1911
• Nouveau traité de médicine, 22 Vols., 1923 (with Georges Henri Roger, P. J. Teissier)

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia article "Widal, Georges-Fernand" by Isidore Singer & Jacques Kahn, a publication now in the public domain.
• Georges-Fernand-Isidor Widal @ Who Named It