Jacques Mathieu Delpech

Jacques Mathieu Delpech (1777 to 1832) was a French surgeon born in Toulouse. He earned his doctorate at the University of Paris in 1801 and then taught anatomy in Toulouse before becoming a surgeon at the Hôtel-Dieu Saint-Eloi in Montpellier in 1812, where he stayed until his death. He is best known for orthopedics: he set up a clinic for orthopaedic diseases at Saint-Eloi and advocated tenotomy, the surgical cutting of a tendon, to correct contracture abnormalities of the limbs. He was also a pioneer of skin grafting and rhinoplasty, and is credited with documenting the first rhinoplastic operation in France. His career ended violently when a patient shot him on 28 October 1832.