Jacques Parisot (15 June 1882, Nancy - 7 October 1967, Nancy) was a French doctor, who is considered one of the initiators of health and social medicine as it is conceived today, and one of the founders of World Health Organization (WHO).
Parisot came from a family of doctors and medical professionals. He achieved many distinctions in his early career, including several prizes for his research in endocrinology. During World War I, he served as a battalion doctor and was eventually promoted to doctor-consultant of the 10th army. He was recognised for his bravery and dedication, and received several awards, including the Legion of Honour.
After the war, Parisot turned his attention to preventive medicine and social action. He campaigned for the dangers of chemical warfare to be considered and was eventually appointed as a medical consultant of the 8th Army during World War II. He joined the Resistance, but was eventually captured and sent to a Neuengamme concentration camp. After the war, he continued his academic career and became the dean of the Faculty of Medicine in Nancy. Parisot campaigned for the social background of diseases, emphasizing the importance of prevention and social action. The Jacques Parisot Foundation Fellowship was awarded in his honour.
Early career
Jacques Parisot was born on 15 June 1882 in Nancy, France to a family of a doctor. His grandfather, Victor Parisot, held the chair of the internal clinic; his great-uncle, Léon Parisot, holder of the chair of anatomy and physiology; his father, Pierre Parisot, renowned forensic doctor; his uncle, Albert Heydenreich, surgeon and dean of the Faculty of medicine. Parisot followed in their footstep as he won the Physiology Prize in 1902, Medicine Prize in 1903, and the Boarding School Prize and Bénit Prize in 1906. In 1906, he was appointed head of the clinic; in 1907, he defended his thesis, Blood pressure and glands with internal secretion, for which he received the thesis prize of the faculty and the Bourceret prize of the National Academy of Medicine.
Parisot married Marcelle Michaut in 1907, whose family was part of the Baccarat crystals. He obtained the aggregation of general medicine in 1913, when he had many publications to his credit, especially in the field of endocrinology, which was still underdeveloped. The same year, he took charge of the tuberculosis of the Villemin Hospital in Nancy. More accustomed to laboratory work, Parisot Parisot became aware of the social background of diseases.
Military career
But from the early 1920s, Parisot give up basic research for preventive medicine and the social action it is oriented.
Mobilised in 1914, he left as a battalion doctor, attached to the 269th infantry regiment. He progressed in the hierarchy in less than a year, assistant doctor and then major. He showed "his bravery and [...] his composure, [...] his innate sense of command and organisation, but also [...] his deeply human qualities of dedication to the wounded". In July 1915, he received a new assignment, in a front ambulance and he has been proposed three times for the Legion of Honour (9 November, 1914 for "beautiful driving in Lorraine and during the fighting of Izel-Les-Equerchin and Douai", renewed in January and March 1915). This award was finally given to him in April 1916.
During the rest of the conflict, he worked on medical pathologies (freezing, nephritis). Assigned to Ambulance Z, responsible for caring for gassed soldiers to the point of being hospitalized, and he published many notes on the effects of combat gases. When the Armistice occurs, he was appointed doctor-consultant of the 10th army led by the General Mangin, a position in which he was faced with the risk of the epidemic typhus and Spanish flu.
On 16 March 1921, he became an Officer of the Legion of Honor. In the interwar period, he campaigned for the dangers of the chemical war to be considered. He became a join the board of directors of the French Red Cross. In 1933, he was promoted to the rank of Commander of the Legion of Honor.
Then the Second World War broke out. On 3 September 1939, he was appointed medical consultant of the 8th Army. While he is based in Alsace, he was taken prisoner at Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, where he catches severe dysentery, which led him to be declared unfit for any service. He was then sent back to his homes with the War Cross 39-45, decorated with a quote.