Dr. Philippe Hecquet

Philippe Hecquet was born into Abbeville’s merchant and rope-making family. After earning a medical doctorate, he practiced at Port-Royal-des-Champs, taught in Paris as a doctor-regent and professor, and served elite households including the Condé family.

He became dean of the Paris medical faculty and wrote on medicine, diet, and public health. An eighteenth-century engraved portrait survives in the Wellcome Collection.