Antoine Germain Labarraque
Encyclopedia
Antoine-Germain Labarraque (28 March 1777 – 9 December 1850) was a French chemist
and pharmacist
, notable for formulating and finding important uses for "Eau de Labarraque" or "Labarraque's solution", a solution of sodium hypochlorite widely used as a disinfectant and deodoriser.
Labarraque's use of sodium and calcium hypochlorite solutions in the disinfection of animal gut processing facilities and morgues, as well as his published reports of their application to treat gangrene and putrescent wounds in living persons in the 1820's, established this practice long before Ignaz Semmelweis employed the same solutions to prevent "cadaveric particles" from traveling from hospital dissecting rooms to patient examination rooms, starting in 1847. These findings and practices are notable for providing an empirical discovery of antisepsis, starting some 40 years before Pasteur and Lister established the theoretical basis of this practice.
Labarraque's solutions and techniques remain in use to the present day.
, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques
department, on May 29, 1777, the son of Francois Labarraque and Christine Sousbielle. He spent over 2 years as a pupil of a pharmacist called Préville in Orthez
, but was then drafted into the army as a "Grenadier de la Tour d'Auvergne". He was promoted to battlefield seargent, and eventually became pharmacist-in-chief at the military hospital of Berra
. He contracted Typhus
and after his recovery was discharged from the military in 1795.
Having taken a liking to Pharmacy, he went to Montpellier
to study under Jean-Antoine Chaptal
. He then went to Paris
, where he worked as a pharmacist and studied at the "College of Pharmacy" under various teachers including Louis Nicolas Vauquelin
. He qualified as a master of Pharmacy in 1805, and in the same year published a work, "Sur la dissolution du phosphore" (on the dissolution of Phosphorus
) followed by "Sur les electuaires" (On electuaries
). He became a member of the "Sociétés de Phamacie et de Médecine" in 1809 after presenting a paper, "Sur les
teintures alcooliques et quelques expériences sur la teinture alcoolique de benjoin" (Alcoholic tinctures and some experiments on the alcoholic tincture of Benzoin
). Subsequently, Labarraque took part in several commissions to examine presentations made to the society.
in order to make musical instrument strings, Goldbeater's skin
and other products. This was carried out in premises known as "boyauderies" (gut factories) and was a notoriously dirty, smelly and unhealthy business. In or about 1820, the "Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie nationale" offered a prize for the discovery of a method, chemical or mechanical, which could be used to separate the peritoneal membrane of animal intestines without causing putrefaction.
Labarraque experimented with different compositions, finding that a solution of "chloride of lime" (calcium hypochlorite
) had better anti-putrid properties than the already-known "Eau de Javel" (sodium hypochlorite, first produced by Claude Berthollet in 1789), but caused slower detachment of the gut mucous membrane. He therefore preferred Eau de Javel, which also had the advantage of being cheaper than solutions based on potassium salts. Labarreque won the society's prize of 1,500 francs, by showing how chlorine
could be employed both to fumigate the workshops, and to loosen the membranes one from another without allowing the offensive odour to escape. He freely acknowledged the part that his predecessors, such as Berthollet
(1748–1822), had played in his discovery.
. The putrefied body emitting a foul odour long before death, which the chemist was able to remove by covering the body with a sheet soaked in chlorinated water. He was awarded the Prix Montyon
, in 1825, by the "Académie des Sciences
", and, in 1826, a medal by the Académie de Marseille
, for his work on "the application of chlorides to hygiene and therapeutics". He was made a member of the "Académie de Médecine
" (1824), Légion d'Honneur
(1827) and the "Conseil de Salubrité" (council of health, 1836).
Labarraque's research resulted in chlorides and hypchlorites of lime (calcium hypochlorite) and of sodium (sodium hypochlorite) being employed not only in the boyauderies but also for the routine disinfection and deodorisation of latrines, sewers
, markets, abattoirs, anatomical theatre
s and morgues. They were also used, with success, in hospitals, lazarets
, prisons, infirmaries (both on land and at sea), magnaneries
, stables, cattle-sheds, etc.; and for exhumations, embalming
, during outbreaks of epidemic illness, fever, Blackleg (disease)
in cattle, etc.
Labarraque's chlorinated lime and soda solutions had been advocated in 1828 to prevent infection (called "contagious infection", and presumed to be transmitted by "miasmas
") and also to treat putrefaction
of existing wounds, including septic wounds. In this 1828 work, Labarraque recommended for the doctor to breathe chlorine, wash his hands with chlorinated lime, and even sprinkle chlorinated lime about the patient's bed, in cases of "contageous infection."
During the Paris cholera outbreak of 1832, large quantities of Chloride of Lime were used to disinfect the capital. Labarraque's discovery helped to remove the terrible stench of decay from hospitals and dissecting rooms, and, by doing so, effectively deodorised the Latin Quarter of Paris. These "putrid miasmas" were thought by many to be responsible for the spread of "contagion" and "infection"- both words used before the germ theory of infection.
Perhaps the most famous application of Labarraque's chlorine solutions was in 1847, when Ignaz Semmelweis
used (first) chlorine water, then cheaper chlorinated lime solutions, to deodorize the hands of doctors, which Semmelweis noticed still carried the stench of decomposition from the disection rooms to the patient examination rooms. Semmelweis, still long before germ theory, had theorized that "cadaveric particles" were somehow transmitting decay from cadavers to living patients, and he used the well-known Labarraque's solutions as the only known method to remove the smell of decay and tissue decomposition (which he found that soap did not). Coincidentally the solutions proved to be far more effective germicideal antiseptics than soap, and this resulted in Semmelweis's (later) celebrated success in stopping the transmission of childbed fever.
Long after the illustrious chemist's death, during the Custer
campaigns in North Dakota
(1873-4), chief-surgeon, Dr. Henry H Ruger (known as "Big Medicine Man" by the Indians) used "Eau de Labarraque" to prevent further deterioration in cases of frostbite
.
Much later, during World War I in 1916, a standardized and diluted modification of Labarraque's solution containing hypochlorite and boric acid was developed by Henry Drysdale Dakin
. Called Dakin's solution, the method of wound irrigation with chlorinated solutions allowed antiseptic treatment of a wide variety of open wounds, long before the antibiotic era.
Labarraque also wrote a large number of dissertations and reports which appeared in journals and scientific reviews.
Chemist
A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
and pharmacist
Pharmacist
Pharmacists are allied health professionals who practice in pharmacy, the field of health sciences focusing on safe and effective medication use...
, notable for formulating and finding important uses for "Eau de Labarraque" or "Labarraque's solution", a solution of sodium hypochlorite widely used as a disinfectant and deodoriser.
Labarraque's use of sodium and calcium hypochlorite solutions in the disinfection of animal gut processing facilities and morgues, as well as his published reports of their application to treat gangrene and putrescent wounds in living persons in the 1820's, established this practice long before Ignaz Semmelweis employed the same solutions to prevent "cadaveric particles" from traveling from hospital dissecting rooms to patient examination rooms, starting in 1847. These findings and practices are notable for providing an empirical discovery of antisepsis, starting some 40 years before Pasteur and Lister established the theoretical basis of this practice.
Labarraque's solutions and techniques remain in use to the present day.
Early years and career
Labarraque was born in Oloron-Sainte-MarieOloron-Sainte-Marie
Oloron-Sainte-Marie is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France. The town of Oloron-Sante-Marie is positioned at the junction of two rivers and has a population of approximately 12,000. While not spectacular, it is a pleasant looking town, with an ancient quarter,...
, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Pyrénées-Atlantiques is a department in the southwest of France which takes its name from the Pyrenees mountains and the Atlantic Ocean.- History :...
department, on May 29, 1777, the son of Francois Labarraque and Christine Sousbielle. He spent over 2 years as a pupil of a pharmacist called Préville in Orthez
Orthez
Orthez is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.It lies 40 km NW of Pau on the Southern railway to Bayonne. The town also encompasses the small village of Sainte-Suzanne thus residents of the town are called either Orthéziens or Sainte-Suzannais...
, but was then drafted into the army as a "Grenadier de la Tour d'Auvergne". He was promoted to battlefield seargent, and eventually became pharmacist-in-chief at the military hospital of Berra
Berra
Berra is a comune in the Province of Ferrara in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about 70 km northeast of Bologna and about 30 km northeast of Ferrara...
. He contracted Typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
and after his recovery was discharged from the military in 1795.
Having taken a liking to Pharmacy, he went to Montpellier
Montpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....
to study under Jean-Antoine Chaptal
Jean-Antoine Chaptal
Jean-Antoine Claude, comte Chaptal de Chanteloup was a French chemist and statesman. He established chemical works for the manufacture of the mineral acids, soda and other substances...
. He then went to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where he worked as a pharmacist and studied at the "College of Pharmacy" under various teachers including Louis Nicolas Vauquelin
Louis Nicolas Vauquelin
Nicolas Louis Vauquelin , was a French pharmacist and chemist.-Early life:Vauquelin was born at Saint-André-d'Hébertot in Normandy, France. His first acquaintance with chemistry was gained as laboratory assistant to an apothecary in Rouen , and after various vicissitudes he obtained an introduction...
. He qualified as a master of Pharmacy in 1805, and in the same year published a work, "Sur la dissolution du phosphore" (on the dissolution of Phosphorus
Phosphorus
Phosphorus is the chemical element that has the symbol P and atomic number 15. A multivalent nonmetal of the nitrogen group, phosphorus as a mineral is almost always present in its maximally oxidized state, as inorganic phosphate rocks...
) followed by "Sur les electuaires" (On electuaries
Electuary
An electuary is a medicinal paste composed of powders, or other medical ingredients, incorporated with sweeteners to hide the taste, like syrup, honey, jam, etc., for the purposes of oral consumption....
). He became a member of the "Sociétés de Phamacie et de Médecine" in 1809 after presenting a paper, "Sur les
teintures alcooliques et quelques expériences sur la teinture alcoolique de benjoin" (Alcoholic tinctures and some experiments on the alcoholic tincture of Benzoin
Benzoin resin
Benzoin resin or styrax resin is a balsamic resin obtained from the bark of several species of trees in the genus Styrax. It is used in perfumes, some kinds of incense, as a flavoring, and medicine . Its principal component is benzoic acid...
). Subsequently, Labarraque took part in several commissions to examine presentations made to the society.
"Labarraque's solution"
In France (as elsewhere) there was a need to process animal gutsCatgut
Catgut is a type of cord that is prepared from the natural fibre found in the walls of animal intestines. Usually sheep or goat intestines are used, but it is occasionally made from the intestines of cattle, hogs, horses, mules, or donkeys.-Etymology:...
in order to make musical instrument strings, Goldbeater's skin
Goldbeater's skin
Goldbeater's skin — the outer membrane of calf's intestine — is a parchment traditionally used in the process of making gold leaf by beating, reducing gold into mere 1μm-thick leaves....
and other products. This was carried out in premises known as "boyauderies" (gut factories) and was a notoriously dirty, smelly and unhealthy business. In or about 1820, the "Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie nationale" offered a prize for the discovery of a method, chemical or mechanical, which could be used to separate the peritoneal membrane of animal intestines without causing putrefaction.
Labarraque experimented with different compositions, finding that a solution of "chloride of lime" (calcium hypochlorite
Calcium hypochlorite
Calcium hypochlorite is a chemical compound with formula 2. It is widely used for water treatment and as a bleaching agent...
) had better anti-putrid properties than the already-known "Eau de Javel" (sodium hypochlorite, first produced by Claude Berthollet in 1789), but caused slower detachment of the gut mucous membrane. He therefore preferred Eau de Javel, which also had the advantage of being cheaper than solutions based on potassium salts. Labarreque won the society's prize of 1,500 francs, by showing how chlorine
Chlorine
Chlorine is the chemical element with atomic number 17 and symbol Cl. It is the second lightest halogen, found in the periodic table in group 17. The element forms diatomic molecules under standard conditions, called dichlorine...
could be employed both to fumigate the workshops, and to loosen the membranes one from another without allowing the offensive odour to escape. He freely acknowledged the part that his predecessors, such as Berthollet
Claude Louis Berthollet
Claude Louis Berthollet was a Savoyard-French chemist who became vice president of the French Senate in 1804.-Biography:...
(1748–1822), had played in his discovery.
Invention of antisepsis techniques with chlorine
In 1824, Labarraque was called in to assist after the death of King Louis XVIII, who had died of extensive gangreneGangrene
Gangrene is a serious and potentially life-threatening condition that arises when a considerable mass of body tissue dies . This may occur after an injury or infection, or in people suffering from any chronic health problem affecting blood circulation. The primary cause of gangrene is reduced blood...
. The putrefied body emitting a foul odour long before death, which the chemist was able to remove by covering the body with a sheet soaked in chlorinated water. He was awarded the Prix Montyon
Montyon Prizes
Montyon Prizes are a series of prizes awarded annually by the Académie Française. They were endowed by the French benefactor Baron de Montyon....
, in 1825, by the "Académie des Sciences
French Academy of Sciences
The French Academy of Sciences is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research...
", and, in 1826, a medal by the Académie de Marseille
Académie de Marseille
The Académie de Marseille is a French learned society from Marseille. It was set up in 1726 and included those in the city involved in the arts, letters and sciences.-External links:*...
, for his work on "the application of chlorides to hygiene and therapeutics". He was made a member of the "Académie de Médecine
Académie Nationale de Médecine
Académie Nationale de Médecine, or National Academy of Medicine was created in 1820 by king Louis XVIII at the urging of baron Antoine Portal. At its inception, the institution was known as the Académie Royale de Médecine...
" (1824), Légion d'Honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
(1827) and the "Conseil de Salubrité" (council of health, 1836).
Labarraque's research resulted in chlorides and hypchlorites of lime (calcium hypochlorite) and of sodium (sodium hypochlorite) being employed not only in the boyauderies but also for the routine disinfection and deodorisation of latrines, sewers
Sewerage
Sewerage refers to the infrastructure that conveys sewage. It encompasses receiving drains, manholes, pumping stations, storm overflows, screening chambers, etc. of the sanitary sewer...
, markets, abattoirs, anatomical theatre
Anatomical theatre
An anatomical theatre was an institution used in teaching anatomy at early modern universities.The theatre was usually a room of roughly amphitheatrical shape, in the centre of which would stand the table on which the dissections of human or animal bodies took place...
s and morgues. They were also used, with success, in hospitals, lazarets
Lazaretto
A lazaretto or lazaret is a quarantine station for maritime travellers. Lazarets can be ships permanently at anchor, isolated islands, or mainland buildings. Until 1908, lazarets were also used for disinfecting postal items, usually by fumigation...
, prisons, infirmaries (both on land and at sea), magnaneries
Magnanery
A magnanery is the site of sericulture, similar to a farm being the site of agriculture. The yeoman who runs it is called a magnanier or, more recently, a mangnan. The word magnanière, meaning building dedicated to sericulture, is also seen....
, stables, cattle-sheds, etc.; and for exhumations, embalming
Embalming
Embalming, in most modern cultures, is the art and science of temporarily preserving human remains to forestall decomposition and to make them suitable for public display at a funeral. The three goals of embalming are thus sanitization, presentation and preservation of a corpse to achieve this...
, during outbreaks of epidemic illness, fever, Blackleg (disease)
Blackleg (disease)
Blackleg, black quarter, quarter evil, quarter ill is an infectious bacterial disease of sheep and cattle, caused by Clostridium chauvoei bacteria. It is found all over the world. A symptom of blackleg is characteristic swellings which make a cracking sound under pressure...
in cattle, etc.
Labarraque's chlorinated lime and soda solutions had been advocated in 1828 to prevent infection (called "contagious infection", and presumed to be transmitted by "miasmas
Miasma theory of disease
The miasma theory held that diseases such as cholera, chlamydia or the Black Death were caused by a miasma , a noxious form of "bad air"....
") and also to treat putrefaction
Putrefaction
Putrefaction is one of seven stages in the decomposition of the body of a dead animal. It can be viewed, in broad terms, as the decomposition of proteins, in a process that results in the eventual breakdown of cohesion between tissues and the liquefaction of most organs.-Description:In terms of...
of existing wounds, including septic wounds. In this 1828 work, Labarraque recommended for the doctor to breathe chlorine, wash his hands with chlorinated lime, and even sprinkle chlorinated lime about the patient's bed, in cases of "contageous infection."
During the Paris cholera outbreak of 1832, large quantities of Chloride of Lime were used to disinfect the capital. Labarraque's discovery helped to remove the terrible stench of decay from hospitals and dissecting rooms, and, by doing so, effectively deodorised the Latin Quarter of Paris. These "putrid miasmas" were thought by many to be responsible for the spread of "contagion" and "infection"- both words used before the germ theory of infection.
Perhaps the most famous application of Labarraque's chlorine solutions was in 1847, when Ignaz Semmelweis
Ignaz Semmelweis
Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis was a Hungarian physician now known as an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures. Described as the "savior of mothers", Semmelweis discovered that the incidence of puerperal fever could be drastically cut by the use of hand disinfection in obstetrical clinics...
used (first) chlorine water, then cheaper chlorinated lime solutions, to deodorize the hands of doctors, which Semmelweis noticed still carried the stench of decomposition from the disection rooms to the patient examination rooms. Semmelweis, still long before germ theory, had theorized that "cadaveric particles" were somehow transmitting decay from cadavers to living patients, and he used the well-known Labarraque's solutions as the only known method to remove the smell of decay and tissue decomposition (which he found that soap did not). Coincidentally the solutions proved to be far more effective germicideal antiseptics than soap, and this resulted in Semmelweis's (later) celebrated success in stopping the transmission of childbed fever.
Long after the illustrious chemist's death, during the Custer
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated last in his class...
campaigns in North Dakota
Dakota Territory
The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North and South Dakota.The Dakota Territory consisted of...
(1873-4), chief-surgeon, Dr. Henry H Ruger (known as "Big Medicine Man" by the Indians) used "Eau de Labarraque" to prevent further deterioration in cases of frostbite
Frostbite
Frostbite is the medical condition where localized damage is caused to skin and other tissues due to extreme cold. Frostbite is most likely to happen in body parts farthest from the heart and those with large exposed areas...
.
Much later, during World War I in 1916, a standardized and diluted modification of Labarraque's solution containing hypochlorite and boric acid was developed by Henry Drysdale Dakin
Henry Drysdale Dakin
Henry Drysdale Dakin FRS was an English chemist.He was born in London as the youngest of 8 children to a family of steel merchants from Leeds. As a school boy he did water analysis with the Leeds City Analyst. He studied chemistry at the University of Leeds with Julius B...
. Called Dakin's solution, the method of wound irrigation with chlorinated solutions allowed antiseptic treatment of a wide variety of open wounds, long before the antibiotic era.
Other written works
- L'Art du boyauderie (Paris, 1822).
- De l'emploi des chlorures d'oxide de sodium et de chaux. (Paris, 1825).
- Scott, James (trans.). On the disinfecting properties of Labarraque's preparations of chlorine (S. Highley, 1828).
- Manière de se servir du chlorure d'oxyde de sodium soit pour panser les plaies de mauvaise nature, soit comme moyen d'assainissement des lieux insalubres et de désinfection des matières animales (Paris, 1825).
- Note sur une asphyxie produite par les émanations des materiaux retirés d'une fosse d'aisance; suivant d'Expériences sur les moyens de désinfection propres à prévenir de pareils accidents (Paris, 1825).
- Sur la préparation des chlorures désinfectants (Paris, 1826).
- Rapport au conseil de salubrité de Paris sur l'exhumation des cadavres déposés en juillet 1832 dans les caveaux de l'église Saint-Eustache.
Labarraque also wrote a large number of dissertations and reports which appeared in journals and scientific reviews.
See also
- Thomas Alcock (surgeon)Thomas Alcock (surgeon)Thomas Alcock was an English surgeon.He was born at Rothbury, Northumberland. After an apprenticeship to a surgeon in Newcastle, he became, in 1805, resident medical officer at the Sunderland Dispensary. In 1806 or 1807 he moved to London and became a general practitioner. From 1825 he devoted...
- Henry Drysdale DakinHenry Drysdale DakinHenry Drysdale Dakin FRS was an English chemist.He was born in London as the youngest of 8 children to a family of steel merchants from Leeds. As a school boy he did water analysis with the Leeds City Analyst. He studied chemistry at the University of Leeds with Julius B...
- Charles TennantCharles TennantCharles Tennant was a Scottish chemist and industrialist. He discovered bleaching powder and founded an industrial dynasty.- Biography:...
- BleachBleachBleach refers to a number of chemicals that remove color, whiten, or disinfect, often via oxidation. Common chemical bleaches include household chlorine bleach , lye, oxygen bleach , and bleaching powder...
Further reading
- Sneader, Walter. Drug discovery: a history (John Wiley and Sons, 2005) pp. 65–6, "Chlorinated disinfectants".
External links
- Works by Labarraque, A. G. (WorldCat)
- Biography (Société d'histoire de la pharmacie). French website.