« Back to Farmacia Journal 1/2015

CAROL DAVILA (1828-1884), FRENCH REFORMER OF 19TH CENTURY ROMANIAN MEDICINE AND PHARMACY: A PICTORIAL BIOGRAPHY

ADRIANA-ELENA TĂEREL¹, MARIA-GABRIELA SULIMAN^2*, ANTOANETA LUCASCIUC³, OCTAVIAN BUDA¹

Download Full Article PDF

30 years since the passing of Charles Antoine François Davila - Carol Davila, there is a need for a pictorial biography of the French doctor, considered providential person for the history of institutionalised medicine and pharmacy in Romania. A prodigious personality, his groundbreaking work was illustrated in biographies signed by his pupils, like C.I. Istrati, D. Grecescu, Z. Petrescu or C.D. Severeanu and by Romanian historians of medicine and pharmacy like G.Z. Petrescu, I. Vintilescu, G. Barbu, G. Brătescu, C. Iugulescu, C. Ionescu etc. Having obtained his PhD at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris (1853) the young doctor was committed to serve in the military medical service in Romanian Principalities, in Bucharest. Davila studied chemistry and pharmacy in Nantes, Angers and Paris and later supported the founding and organizing of academic education in medical, pharmaceutical and veterinary medical services, both military and civilian, in the 19th century Bucharest. Carol Davila has been immortalized in numerous works of art, signed by painters like T. Aman, N. Grigorescu, A. Elliescu, H. Braunstein; by sculptors like I. Georgescu, C. Brâncuşi, C. Storck; photographers: I. Dauthage, D. Williams, Fr. Duschek, Carol Szathmari; engravers and known art designers of the time, like André Lavrillier, Wilhelm and Mayer, Gh. Adoc.