Jean-Louis Alibert

Jean-Louis Marie Alibert (2 May 1768 – 4 November 1837) was a French

Alibert believed that when diagnosing skin disorders several criteria needed to be used, and attempted to introduce a classification system for diseases that was similar to the method Bernard and Antoine Laurent de Jussieu used in botany. Alibert first classified dermatological disorders according to outer appearance, then he divided them into what he called families, genera and species. This system of classification was represented pictorially by Alibert as the "Tree of Dermatoses". Reportedly, from his "tree", Alibert wished to introduce a method rather than a classification system.^[2]

Alibert was a prodigious writer, his best known work being the beautifully illustrated Descriptions des maladies de la peau. His literary work also included biographies of famed scientists such as Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729–1799) and Luigi Galvani (1737–1798).^[3]

In 1806, he was the first to describe a patient with mycosis fungoides.^[4] The disease was formerly referred to as "Alibert-Bazin syndrome", named in conjunction with dermatologist Pierre-Antoine-Ernest Bazin (1807–1878).^[5]

In 1818, he was the first to describe a patient with psoriatic arthritis.

See also

• List of dermatologists

Selected bibliography

• Dissertation sur les fièvres pernicieuses ou ataxiques intermittentes, Doctoral thesis (1799).
• Alibert JLM (1806). Descriptions des maladies de la peau observées a l'Hôpital Saint-Louis, et exposition des meilleures méthodes suivies pour leur traitement (in French). Paris: Barrois l’ainé. p. 286. Archived from the original on 2012-12-12.
• Alibert JLM (1826–1827). Physiologie des passions, ou, Nouvelle doctrine des sentimens moraux (in French) (2e éd. rév., corr. et augm. ed.). Paris: Béchet jeune.
• Alibert JLM (1835). Monographie des dermatoses (in French) (2nd ed.). Paris: Germer Balliere.

References