Belsazar Hacquet

Belsazar de la Motte Hacquet, also written Balthasar or Balthazar Hacquet (about 1739 to 10 January 1815), was a physician of French descent who worked in Carniola during the Enlightenment. The cited article describes him as a war surgeon, a surgeon in the mining town of Idrija, and a professor of anatomy and surgery in Laibach, now Ljubljana. Alongside medicine he researched the geology and botany of Carniola, Istria and nearby places, and he was the first explorer of the Julian Alps. He also did ethnographical work among the South Slavic peoples, particularly the Slovene-speaking population. He thought of himself first as a chemist and introduced the methods of chemical analysis to Carniola, so his place in the history of medicine is that of a surgeon and teacher whose scientific range reached well beyond the clinic.