Henri François Le Dran

Henri François Le Dran was a French surgeon who lived from 1685 to 1770. He lectured at the Royal Academy of Medicine in Paris and practiced surgery at the Hôpital de la Charité, where his work was closely linked with that of the surgeon Jean-Louis Petit, and the Swiss anatomist Albrecht von Haller counted among his students. He is remembered for early research on cancer, which he understood as a local disease that advanced in stages, and for urging that tumors be removed surgically before they spread through the lymphatic system. In 1741 he gave the first description of what is now called the Spigelian hernia. His treatise on gunshot wounds is credited with bringing the term shock into medical use, and his 1749 Traité des opérations de chirurgie was later translated into English. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1745.