Frère Jacques Beaulieu

Frère Jacques Beaulieu

Frère Jacques Beaulieu, OP (French pronunciation: [fʁɛʁ ʒɑk boljø]); 1651–1720), also known as Frère Jacques Baulot,[1][2] was a Dominican friar and travelling lithotomist with scant knowledge of anatomy. Beaulieu performed the frequently-deadly procedure in France into the early 18th century.[3]

The urologic community often claims Beaulieu is subject of the French nursery rhyme Frère Jacques (also known in English as Brother John), but this is not well-established. A possible connection between Frère Jacques and Beaulieu, as claimed by Irvine Loudon[4] and many others, was explored by J. P. Ganem and C. C. Carson [5] without finding any evidence for a connection.

Some have suggested that Frère Jacques was instead written to mock the Jacobin monks of France (Jacobins are what the Dominicans are called in Paris).[6]

References

1. baulot
2. Un célèbre lithotomiste franc-comtois : Jacques Baulot dit Frère Jacques (1651-1720), E. Bourdin, Besançon, 1917
3. A biographical sketch of him is available on Pubmed at: Barrett, NR (1949). ""Observables" at the Royal College of Surgeons: 22. Frère Jacques". Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 5 (4): 275–81. PMC 2238378. PMID 19309876.
4. Western Medicine, Irvine Loudon, Oxford University Press, Dec 1, 2001, ISBN 0-19-924813-3
5. Ganem, JP; Carson, CC (Apr 1999). "Frère Jacques Beaulieu: from rogue lithotomist to nursery rhyme character". J. Urol. 161 (4): 1067–9. doi:10.1016/s0022-5347(01)61591-x. PMID 10081839.
6. eMedicine - Bladder Stones : Article by Joseph Basler