Jean Alfred Fournier

Born May 12, 1832, in Paris; died there Dec. 25, 1914. French physician; a pioneer in the study of syphilis.

Fournier graduated from the University of Paris in 1852; he became a professor in the university’s faculty of medicine in 1863, and head of an independent clinic for cutaneous and venereal diseases in 1880. In his Study of Chancre (1897), written jointly with his teacher P. Ricord, Fournier proved the existence of two different chancres—the hard chancre of syphilis, or true chancre, and the nonsyphilitic venereal sore called chancroid, or soft chancre. In his subsequent works Fournier studied the morphology of syphilitic skin lesions, congenital syphilis, syphilis económica (contracted from infected articles of daily use), syphilis of the internal organs and nervous system, and treatment.

Fournier regarded syphilis as a disease of the entire organism. He showed the syphilitic nature of Bayle’s disease. In 1901 he founded a French society for medical and moral prophylaxis of venereal diseases. Certain skin diseases and symptoms of syphilis—for example, the eruption that is also known as syphilitic roseola—have been named after Fournier.