Etienne-Louis Arthur Fallot

Etienne-Louis Arthur Fallot attended the Lycée in Marseille and began the study of medicine at the University of Marseille in 1867. He interned in Marseille and spent his entire medical career in this city, although his dissertation in 1876 was in Montpellier on a thesis of pneumothorax.

The same year Fallot became director of a medical clinic in Marseille, and in 1883 was appointed assistant professor at the medical high school. Fallot was also professor of forensic medicine and hygiene. In 1888 he became professor of Hygiene and Legal Medicine in Marseille. He held this tenure until his death in 1911.

A list of literature from the library of the academy of medicine in Paris shows Fallot's scientific production to be rather extensive. He reported on a local epidemic of cholera, on a case of congenital pectoralis aplasia and a case of hysterical hemiplegia, and he described the incidence of encephalitis in Corsicans. There is also a piece on medical history, as well as a suggestion of a reorganisation of forensic medicine in France. The list has no work published by Fallot during the last two decades of his life - excepting a description of a Neolithic grotto in Reillanne, Provence-Beyond, in south-western France.

Fallot was a fine clinician known for his minute physical examinations, possessing an impressive ability to draw conclusions. He is also said to haw shown compassion and true emotions for the week and miserable of society.

Fallot was struck by disease relatively early and died in May 1911, following a period of "ascetic loneliness". He wanted no obituary. Fallot never received the legion of honour, a fact which emphasises the impression that his work and accomplishments was never highly appreciated.

• C. Mattei:
  Savoir et humilité às l’ecole de médecine de Marseille.
  Paris, Masson & Cie, 1968: 21.
• R. D. Greenwood:
  Historical perspective in cardiology: The tetralogy of Fallot.
  The Journal of the Oklahoma State Medical Association, Oklahoma City, 1976. 69: 203.
• B. G. Firkin and J. A. Whitehead:
  Dictionary of Medical Eponyms. Parthenon Publishing Group. 1989. Page 154.
• Björn Bjarke:
  En medicinens ”doldis” – fransmannen vars narm alle känner men få vet nogonting om.
  Läkartidningen, Stockholm, 1983, volume 43.
  Reprinted in Mannen bakom syndromen, published by Läkartidningen, Stockholm 1989.
• Peter Beighton & Gretha Beighton:
  The Person Behind the Syndrome. Springer Verlag, London, 1997. Page 210.