Ferdinand-Jean Darier


Ferdinand-Jean Darier was a French physician, pathologist and dermatologist called the "father of modern dermatology in France".

Career

Medical

Born in Budapest, Hungary to French parents, Darier studied with Louis-Antoine Ranvier at the Collège de France.
Darier discovered several diseases, most notably Darier's disease, a peculiar figurate erythema, which he identified in 1889 as psorodermose folliculaire végétante. The other diseases were a follicular keratosis, acanthosis nigricans, dermatofibrosarcoma, erythema annularis, subcutaneous sarcoidosis, and a sign, Darier's sign observed in mastocytosis.
From 1909 to 1922, Darier was head of the clinical department at the Hôpital Saint-Louis. He was one of the "big five" of the Paris School of Dermatology, along with Ernest Henri Besnier, Louis-Anne-Jean Brocq, Raymond Sabouraud and Jean Alfred Fournier.
Darier wrote the dermatology textbook Précis de dermatologie, which was published in 1909 and translated into Spanish, German and English. He was also the editor of the dermatological encyclopedia Nouvelle Pratique Dermatologique, which was published in eight volumes, beginning in 1936.

Political

Besides his medical activities, Darier was the mayor of the town Longpont-sur-Orge from 1925 to 1935.

List of works