François Victor Mérat de Vaumartoise

François Victor Mérat de Vaumartoise (5 July 1780 in Paris – 13 March 1851 in Paris) was a French physician, botanist and mycologist. In 1803 he obtained his medical doctorate with a thesis on heavy metal poisoning, afterwards serving as chef de clinique at the Hôpital de la Charité in Paris. He was a member of the Académie nationale de médecine, a correspondent member of the Société linnéenne de Lyon (1824–1851) and a member of the Société nationale et centrale d'agriculture. He was an Officer of the Légion d'honneur (1847) and a Chevalier of the Order du Christ de Portugal (1828). He expanded the work reported in his doctoral dissertation with additional reports on the effects of heavy metal poisoning in craftsmen. During his ten years at Charité he treated and cured numerous patients with lead poisoning. He was the taxonomic authority of the lichenized fungi genus Lasallia and of the botanical genera Corvisartia (family Asteraceae), Lerouxia (family Primulaceae) and Robertia (family Ranunculaceae). His botanical and medical interest met in his report on the use of pomegranate root to fight tapeworm infections. He received a monetary award from the Academy of Sciences for this work. With Adrien Jacques de Lens, he was co-author of a medical dictionary, titled "Dictionnaire universel de matière médicale et de thérapeutique générale", published in seven volumes from 1829 to 1846. Other written efforts by Mérat de Vaumartoise include: Traité de la colique métallique, vulgairement appelée colique des peintres, des plombiers, de Poitou, etc.; avec une description de la colique végétale, et un mémoire sur le tremblement des doreurs sur métaux, (Paris: Méquignon-Marvis, 1812). Nouvelle flore des environs de Paris suivant le système sexuel de Linnée, avec l'indication des vertus des plantes usitées en médecine, des détails sur leur emploi pharmaceutique. Paris : Méquignon-Marvis, 1812. Éléments de botanique, à l'usage des personnes qui suivent les cours du Jardin du Roi et de la Faculté de médecine de Paris.