Amedee Lefevre (1798-1869) and the struggle against lead disease in the French Navy

Ami dee Lefevre was born in Paris in 1795. Joining the French Navy in 1812 as a novice, he took part in the last naval fights of the Empire. In Januar y 1816, he was received as a student in the Naval Hospital Medical School a t Rochefort, from then his career was mapped out After several roles in his career as surgeon-commander, and professor, he devoted his life to the fig ht against dry colic, a dramatic epidemic which had decimated the crews of the navy. First, he proved that the plague's origin was from lead and lead products, such as paintings, plates, etc. He successfully proposed to the M inister of the Navy to embark on a drastic fight against the presence and t he use of lead on board. Holding the positions of surgeon vice-admiral and a member of the Academy of Medicine, he died in 1869 leaving with him memor ies of a virtuous man who brought "extinction of saturnism" in the Navy.