Jean, Henri et Marie Pillore

Jean PILLORE was born in Verfeil (Haute Garonne) on June 6, 1724. Having decided to study surgery he left his native Languedoc for the capital. Intelligent and hard working, he quickly distinguished himself as a surgeon and lecturer. In 1742, the famous surgeon from Rouen Claude Nicolas LECAT (1700-1768) asked the Paris school of surgery to propose him an assistant , that’s how the young Pillore became an intern in surgery at the Hôtel- Dieu hospital where he stayed for five years, also assisting Lecat in his surgical school. He then went his own way and made a brilliant career, He likewise opened a free course on childbirth. In 1776, he was the first surgeon to form an artificial anus in the abdomen.Father of twelve living children , he died in Rouen in 1804.

His son Henri PILLORE born in 1771 followed his father’s footsteps. He earned his MD from the university of Montpellier in the year III ( 1794-1795). He moved to Rouen where he spent his entire career.In 1842 while walking in his property of Bois Bagnères, he died of apoplexy.

Marie Jean Henry PILLORE ( grandson of Jean, and son of Henri) was born rue de Fontenelle in Rouen in 1807. He studied medicine from the famous DUPUYTREN and showed great devotion during the cholera epidemic of 1832. Graduated in medicine in 1843 he was appointed assistant surgeon at the General Hospice of Rouen the following year. Lecturer in anatomy at the medical school, he became head of the lying-in department (gésine) at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in 1846. In 1848, he became full professor of anatomy and physiology. From 1847 he experimented anesthesia with ether and nitrous oxide . relieved of his midwifery duties in 1853, he continued his career as chief doctor at the Hôtel-Dieu until his premature death at his home on February 26, 1855. In his will, he bequeathed the sum of 200,000 francs to the Hospices of Rouen in order to build a modern maternity ward “gésine” with the wish that “Gésine Pillore” would be engraved on its facade. He also bequeathed to the city of Rouen his medical library composed of 3000 volumes, his mother died soon after in 1856 leaving a bequest to the municipality in order to award a prize each year to the top ranking medical student in the competitive exam.

Today, through the Pillore collection of the medical school library and the Pillore Pavilion , which for a long time housed the Gastroenterology department, the memory of this medical dynasty will always be with us.