Paul-Louis Simond (1858-1947)

French physician and biologist, born on July 30, 1858, in Beaufort-sur-Gervanne (Drôme, France). His father was a pastor of the Reformed Church. High School studies in Tournon.
1878-1882 Assistant in medical and biological sciences at the School of Medicine and Pharmacy, in Bordeaux ; enrollment in medical training in Bordeaux.
1882 Entrance examination for service in the Naval Medical Corps.
1882-1886 Named head of the leper-hospital in Acarouani, near Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni (French Guyana) where he contracted an attenuated form of yellow fever.
1885 Organized relief effort for the survivors of the schooner Saint-Paul, for which he was officially acknowledged by the French Guyana's governor.
1886 Returned to school in Bordeaux to complete his medical studies.
1887 Thesis defense for Medical Doctorate, which dissertation topic was about leprosy in Guyana, which won him the Godard thesis prize from the French Academy of Medicine.
1890-1894 Named "Médecin de seconde classe de la Marine" in the Colonial Health Corps and assigned to duty in the Far East. Participated in vaccination campaigns against small-pox, for which he received the Vaccine Gold Medal ; conducted oceanographic research in the Gulf of Tonkin ; member of a delegation directed by Gallieni for the definition of boundary lines between China and Indo-China. During the time he was posted in China (Long-Tcheou), compiled extensive information on the medical history of the areas in which he worked, which was subsequently published in the Archives de médecine et de pharmacie navales, in 1895.
Nov.1895-Jan.1896 Returned from the Far East, attended the renown microbiology course (cours de microbiologie) at the Institut Pasteur of Paris, where he met A. Calmette and F. Mesnil.
1896-1897 Commenced research on the biology of coccidians in Elie Metchnikoff 's laboratory at the Institut Pasteur. He demonstrated the connection between life history of coccidians and that of species of Plasmodium, which Laveran had shown, in 1880, to cause malaria ; described the early sporogony stage of their life cycle. Laveran, in his Traité du paludisme (1907) wrote that "Simond demonstrated that the flagellated stage occurs in Coccidia and he was the first to theorize the flagellum is characteristic of a male sexual element that functions to fertilize the female element" ; he thus contributed to prove the theory of evolutionary dimorphism, that R. Pfeiffer had previously put forward, by providing experimental support for it, in all studied species of Coccidia.
1897-1898 At the Institut Pasteur's request, travelled to India and continued the vaccination campaign against plague begun by A. Yersin. At the end of 1897, overworked and exhausted, he contracted malaria, which forced him to have a rest in Agra (India). On February, he was promptly sent to Karachi (now in Pakistan), to study a very severe recurrent epidemic of plague. While continuing anti-plague serotherapy treatment for people suffering from the disease, he conducted research on plague transmission, assuming that plague might be transmitted through insects. On June 2, 1898, he provided experimental evidence that plague is transmitted through fleas from rat to rat and from rat to human.
1898 E. Roux published P.-L. Simond 's report on the spread of plague ("La propagation de la peste") in the Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, for which Simond was awarded the Barbier prize from the French Academy of Medicine.
1898-1901 Named Director of the Pasteur Institute in Saigon (Indochina). In charge of the organization of a modern vaccine service, in particular. Named "Chevalier de légion d'honneur".
July, 1901 Married Marguerite Laroue, in Mazet-Saint-Voy (Haute-Loire).
1901-1905 With E. Marchoux and A. Salimbeni, participated in a study mission on yellow fever in Brazil, organized by the Institut Pasteur. They confirmed the results that the U.S. Army Commission had just obtained in Cuba, revealing that the amaril virus is present in the blood of patients and can be conveyed to human by mosquitoe Stegomia fasciata recognized as the exclusive vector of the disease. The three scientists recommended that preventive measures to be taken against spread of the disease must be designed to get rid of mosquitoes. In addition, they observed that people can be immunized by injection of patient serum (heated at 55øC for several minutes) or convalescent serum.
1906-1910 Named Professor at the Graduate School of the Colonial Health Corps ("Ecole d'application du service de santé des troupes coloniale"), in Marseille.
1907 In collaboration with E. Marchoux, F. Noc, Et. Sergent and Ed. Sergent, wrote the chapter entitled "Hygiène coloniale" in the Traité d'hygiène by Brouardel and Mosny.
1908 Charter member of the French Society of Exotic Pathology (Société de Pathologie Exotique, SPE).
1908-1909 With P. Aubert and F. Noc, participated in the study mission on yellow fever in Martinique.
1911-1913 Named Director of the Imperial Bacteriology Research Institute in Constantinople, succeeding P. Remlinger. L. Pasteur Vallery-Radot was among his collaborators. In charge of the preparation of a vaccine against typhus. Had to cope with an outbreak of cholera.
1913 Became corresponding member of the French Society of Biology (Société de Biologie). Member of the Technical Committee for Health at the department of war.
1914 Elected corresponding member of the French Academy of Medicine (anatomy and physiology section).
1914-1917 During First World War, served as Director of the Colonial Health Corps and Inspector of Hygiene and Health services in Indochina. Out of the course of his official duties, he had a passion for studying orchids in Indochina ; He had made by an artist 226 watercolours of different species of orchids and he specified precise captions allowing their identification. He donated the collection to the Museum d'histoire naturelle, in 1947.
1917 Clashing with the military authorities, asked for his assignment to duty on the French war front ; following the Army's rejection, resigned from the Colonial Health Corps as a chief medical inspector officer ("médecin général inspecteur").
1919-1924 Deputy Mayor in Valence (Drôme), participated in the creation of a day nursery and a tuberculosis clinic in the city.
1919-1947 Playing a role in public health in the Drôme department, became a member of the departmental social hygiene council and president of the departmental committee for fight against tuberculosis (CNDT).
1947 Died in Valence (Drôme) on March 3, 1947. R. Dujarric de la Rivière pronounced his eulogy at the French Academy of Medicine.

Collaborators : Arlo, P. Aubert, M. Blanchard, P. Brun, Grimaud, E. Marchoux, F. Noc, Pasteur Vallery-Radot, A. Salimbeni, Thibault, A. Yersin.

Biographical reference tools :
- Simond (Marc), Un pastorien discret - La vie de Paul-Louis Simond, Imp. Bastianelli-Guirimand, Grenoble, 15 p., 05/1994.
- Voelckel (Jacques), "La vie et l'oeuvre de P.-L. Simond (1858-1947)", Médecine Tropicale, 29, pp. 429-441, 1969.
- Crawford (Edward A.), "Paul-Louis Simond and his work on plague", Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, vol. 39, n° 3, Chicago, 1996.

CeRIS' Archives Division (Institut Pasteur)