Henri Choussat (1906-1994)

Thesis: La lutte anti-syphilitique à la maternité d’Alger. Thesis (D.M.)–Université d’Alger, 1934. Excerpts PDF

Henri Choussat was born on March 24, 1906 in Montpellier. After passing the baccalauréat at the age of 17, he enrolled to study medicine and law (he did not pursue the latter). He began his internship in 1928 and worked for a time with Dr. Oulie in Constantine, where he studied surgical techniques. In 1934, Choussat received his Doctorat en Médecine.

At the end of his studies, he married his classmate, Juliette Clausse, with whom he opened a practice and worked in the hospital in Ménerville. He expanded the small hospital, adding an operating room, a radiology department (directed by his spouse) and a library, and recruited interns. He also organized continuing education studies for regional doctors.

He became a member of the faculty, served as chair of general pathology at the Université d’Alger, and continued to both teach and work at the Ménerville hospital until the end of the Algerian War of Independence in 1962. In 1962, Choussat joined the medical faculty in Bordeaux as professor of semiology and later medical pathology. He was particularly interested in gerontology.

Following his retirement, he became more active in the profession, attending conferences and working with WHO, UNESCO, and the U.N. In 1983 he participated in a mission to French Polynesia to study H.L.A. blood types.

Choussat was elected a corresponding member of the Société médicale des hôpitaux de Paris (1950), was made a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (1956), an officer in the Ordre national du mérite, and an officer in the order of Palmes académiques.

Choussat died in 1994.

Sources:

LAGROT, F. and P. CLARAC. “Henri Choussat.” Santé Maghreb Algérie : Histoire de l’Algérie médicale. http://www.santetropicale.com/santemag/algerie/hist/index.asp. Accessed 9 May 2006. Link no longer accessible October 24, 2022.

LAGROT, F. and P. CLARAC. “Le Professeur Henri Choussat (1906-1994).” Pieds-noirs d’hier et d’aujourd’hui (PNHA) 58 (June 1995). http://alger-roi.fr/Alger/portraits/pages_liees/17_professeur_choussat_pn58.htm.  Page no longer accessible [8-22-2016].

Biographies of selected authors from the New York Academy of Medicine Collection of International Medical Theses written by Kristin W. Andrews, B.A., M.S.L.S.

Last modified: 10/25/22