Charles Nicolle (1866-1936)

Charles Nicolle was born in Rouen on September 21, 1866. Son and brother of physicians, he quite naturally chose to study medicine. Shortly afterwards on finding out that he was suffering from an evolutive hearing loss, he decided to favour dermatology and laboratory science for which hearing isn’t essential. During his internship at the “Hôpitaux de Paris” he developed a passion for microbiology and studied under Professor Emile Roux (1853-1933) at “l’Institut Pasteur”.

On returning to Rouen he became head of the new bacteriological laboratory of the medical school in 1896 and then became head of services of the “Hospice général de Rouen” in 1900, specialising in venereal and skin diseases. In the face of strong oppositions to his projects and ambitions he resigned at the end of 1902 to become director of the l'institut Pasteur” in Tunis.

At the head of this institution, Charles Nicolle undertook a vast microbiological survey of diseases that affected North Africa. Among his numerous studies, a particular mention must be made for his discovery in 1908, in association with Louis Hubert Manceaux (1865-1930), of a new parasite responsible for human toxoplasmosis, however it was his work on typhus , a frequently fatal infectious disease associated with wars and poverty which brought him recognition and world wide fame. In 1909 Charles Nicolle, Charles Comte (1865-1943) and Ernest Conseil (1879-1930) provided experimental proof that this disease was transmitted by body lice. This discovery enabled prophylactic measures to be put in place to save many lives through the systematic delousing of the people from infected areas. In pursuing his work on this scourge, he invented the inapparent infection concept which he considered his most important discovery.

His research on typhus won him two major awards: the Osiris prize in 1927 by “l’institut de France” and the Nobel prize for physiology and medicine in 1928. In 1932 he was elected professor of medicine, a prestigious position at the “Collège de France”. He demonstrated a scientific prophecy in which doctors confronted to the emergence of AIDS at the end of the 20th century, recognized the accuracy of his predictions.

“There will be new diseases. It’s a fatal certainty. Another certainty , also fatal, is that we will never be able to detect them at the moment they emerge. When we will have a better understanding of these diseases, they will all be developed ,we could say grown up”.

Charles Nicolle is laid to rest at the institut Pasteur in Tunis. On the marble slab of his grave,there are two interlaced branches,a combination of an apple tree and an olive tree, of Normandy and Tunisia.