Pierre Augustin Béclard

Pierre Augustin Béclard, a native of Angers, lived from 12 October 1785 to 16 March 1825 and was a French anatomist and surgeon, and the father of the physiologist Jules-Auguste Béclard. He was a professor of anatomy in Paris and chief surgeon at the Pitié Hospital, and in 1818 he was appointed to the chair of anatomy, where he was considered a brilliant lecturer. With Jules Germain Cloquet he translated William Lawrence's work on hernias from English into French as Traité des hernies. He is credited with introducing new amputative and surgical practices, including an extirpation of the parotid gland in 1823. His name survives in Béclard's nucleus, the centre of ossification in the cartilage of the lower end of the femur in late fetal life, which forensic medicine uses to estimate the age of a fetus or newborn infant.