He was made a member of the French Academy of Sciences in 1743 and a professor in the Paris Faculty of Medicine in 1745 and also in the Collège Royal in 1745, where he took the medical chair previously held by Pierre-Jean Burette [fr].

[1][2] Bouvart was famous for his quick diagnoses and accurate prognoses, but also for his caustic wit[3] and polemical writing against his fellow physicians, notably Théodore Tronchin, Théophile de Bordeu, Exupère Joseph Bertin [fr], Antoine Petit.

Well, at one time, pyramidal elm bark[6] had a great reputation; it was taken as a powder, as an extract, as an elixir, even in baths.

At the peak of the fad, one of Bouvard’s [sic] patients asked him if it might not be a good idea to take some: "Take it, Madame", he replied, "and hurry up while it [still] cures."

[dépêchez-vous pendant qu’elle guérit] Une dame consulta Bouvard [sic] sur le desir qu'elle avoit d'user un remède alors à la mode.

Variants of Bouvart's quip about the placebo effect of using a new treatment or medicine "while it still works" are often quoted without crediting him; it is also often attributed to people who never said it.

[9] It is said that he replied to Cardinal ***, a not very regular prelate (some say Abbot Terray), who was complaining of suffering like a damned person: "What!

A "regular prelate" (prélat régulier) is a high-ranking churchman; this is a play on words, implying that he was irregular, that is, immoral.