author
Antoine Poissonnier-Desperrières
1722–1793
An eighteenth-century French physician of the navy, he wrote some of the period’s best-known medical works on life at sea and on the diseases faced by sailors and colonists. His books show a doctor trying to solve practical health problems in harsh, crowded environments.
1 Audiobook
Mémoire sur les avantages qu'il y auroit à changer absolument la nourriture des gens de mer
by Antoine Poissonnier-Desperrières, chevalier de La Coudraye
About the author
Antoine Poissonnier-Desperrières was a French medical writer active in the eighteenth century, usually identified in library and archival records as living from 1722 to 1793, though some catalogues give 1723 as his birth year. He is closely associated with naval and colonial medicine, and records describe him as a physician connected with the French navy and with hospitals serving the colonies.
He is best known for works including Traité des maladies des gens de mer (a treatise on the diseases of seafarers), Traité des fièvres de l'isle de St.-Domingue, and a memoir arguing for major changes in sailors’ diets. Those titles suggest the practical focus of his career: scurvy, fever, shipboard health, and the everyday medical risks of long voyages.
Although detailed biographical information appears to be scarce online, surviving catalogues and collections make clear that his writings mattered enough to be preserved by institutions such as the Wellcome Collection and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Today he is remembered mainly as an early voice in maritime medicine, writing at a time when food, ventilation, and overcrowding could decide whether a voyage ended safely or in sickness.