Auguste Nélaton

Born in Paris, he began studying medicine in 1828 and graduated as an MD in 1836 with a thesis on the effects of tuberculosis on the bones.

[1] From 1851 to 1867, he was a full professor, a post he abandoned when he became the personal surgeon of Napoleon III.

Ramón Emeterio Betances—Puerto Rican pro-independence leader, surgeon and Légion d'honneur laureate—was one of Nélaton's prominent students.

He was the first to re-emphasize ligature of the two ends of arteries in hemorrhages first promoted by Ambroise Paré in the mid-16th century.

A rubber catheter which was a great improvement and relieved patients of the distress of tour de maître (catheterization with stiff implements).