Victor Alphonse Amédée Dumontpallier (8 March 1826, Honfleur – 13 January 1899, Paris) was a French gynecologist best known for his studies of hypnotism and metalloscopy (metallotherapy).
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/Dumontpallier_%282%29.jpg/220px-Dumontpallier_%282%29.jpg)
In 1857 he received his medical doctorate in Paris, where from 1863 he served as chef de clinique at the Hôtel-Dieu. In 1866 he was named chef de service at the Hôpital de la Pitié in Paris.[1]
From 1860 to 1879 he was a member of the Société de biologie, and in 1892 was elected as a member of the Académie de médecine. In 1891 he was named president of the Société d'hypnologie et de psychologie, an organization of which, he was also a co-founder.[1][2] In 1886, he co-founded the journal "Revue de l'hypnotisme expérimental et thérapeutique".[3]
He was a prominent member of the so-called "Salpêtrière School of Hypnosis". He described the phenomenon of "bilateral hallucinations" and opposing expressions (double expressions). In his experiments, he demonstrated that a patient under hypnosis could simultaneously show expressions of joy on one side of the face and despair on the other side.[4][5]
His name is associated with the "Dumontpallier pessary" (Le pessaire de Dumontpallier), a medical device used for uterine prolapse.[3]
Selected works
edit- Étude expérimentale sur la métalloscopie et la métallothérapie du Dr Burq, rapports faits à la Société de biologie (1877-1878), 1879 – Experimental study on the metalloscopy and metallotherapy of Dr. Victor Burq.
- Note sur l'analgésie thérapeutique locale déterminée par l'irritation de la région similaire du côté opposé du corps, 1880 – Note on localized analgesia therapy, etc.
- Revue descriptive des appareils destinés aux applications thérapeutiques de la chaleur et du froid (with Émile Galante), 1880 – Descriptive review of apparatuses for the therapeutic applications of heat and cold.
- Hypnotisme expérimental. La dualité cérébrale et l'indépendance fonctionnelle des deux hémisphères cérébraux (with Edgar Bérillon), 1884 – Experimental hypnosis; cerebral duality and functional independence of the two cerebral hemispheres.
- Traitement local de l'endométrite chronique: communication faite à l'Académie de médecine, 1891 – Local treatment of chronic endometritis.[6][7]
References
edit- ^ a b Dumontpallier, Victor Alphonse Amédée Sociétés savantes de France
- ^ JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, Volume 61
- ^ a b Hysteria: The Rise of an Enigma edited by J. Bogousslavsky
- ^ Medicine, Mind, and the Double Brain: A Study in Nineteenth-Century Thought by Anne Harrington
- ^ Hysteria: The Rise of an Enigma edited by J. Bogousslavsky
- ^ Dumontpallier, Victor Alphonse Amédée (1826-1899) IDREF.fr
- ^ OCLC WorldCat published works