Marie-Théophile Griffon du Bellay
Marie-Théophile Griffon du Bellay (14 August 1829 – 10 November 1908) was a French physician, naval surgeon, explorer and ethnobotanist. Life. Marie-Théophile was born at Rochefort, the middle child of the three sons of Joseph Jean Baptiste Alexandre Griffon du Bellay and Marie Elisabeth Claire de Nesmond. His father was one of the last remaining survivors of the infamous "wreck of the Medusa" (upon which he had served as secretary to the then governor of Senegal Colonel Julien-Désiré Schmaltz) and became a commissioner in the French Navy. Qualifying as a naval surgeon at  the age of 20 in 1849, Marie-Théophile served on several French naval vessels between 1850 and 1861, his periods of service interspersed with time ashore in the port town of Rochefort. On the eighth of March 1856, he qualified as Doctor of Medicine, his doctoral thesis at the University of Montpellier being entitled "Essai sur le Tétanos" ("Essay upon Tetanus"). Surgeon first class of the ship "Pionnier", under the command of Paul Augustin Serval, he twice attempted to reach the Ogooué River of Gabon in the year 1862. Stranded and unwell at the river delta, in July of that  year, he was forced, in December, to give up his attempt and allow his companion to travel on alone up the valley of the river Remboué (now protected as part of Gabon's Pongara National Park). From the 25th of December 1867, he was principal physician aboard the "Caravane", a Hospital ship stationed in Gabon. During this time he undertook studies of "Tabernanthe iboga" and also of "Griffonia simplicifolia" (the genus "Griffonia" having been named in his honour by fellow physician and botanist Henri Baillon in 1865), and was among the earliest European physicians to describe sleeping sickness*. He wrote , in addition papers concerning the efficacy of quinine sulphate in his successful treatment of cases of malaria. In 1871 he became director of the health service for the "départements" of la Vendée, Loire-Atlantique and Morbihan. Thereafter he worked in Guadeloupe from 1868 to 1871, (where he was confronted by an epidemic of yellow fever ) and then in Senegal from 1877 to 1878. He was for some years a member of the "". His name features on a monument commemorating the glorious African dead and fallen patriots of AOF in Dakar. Note* : The French language website "Bibliographies de l'Ecole Navale" claims  that Griffon du Bellay was the first European physician to describe sleeping sickness, but the Wikipedia page African trypanosomiasis does not support this claim, presenting evidence that British naval surgeon John Atkins described the disease on his return from West Africa in 1734, over a century earlier. Siblings. Two brothers: Naval career. 1849 : enrolled in the medical service of the French navy, with the rank of medical officer, third class. September the 18th 1853 : promoted to the rank of medical officer, second class. May the 25th 1861 : promoted to the rank of medical officer, first class. First of November 1861  : posted to the hospital ship the "Caravane" moored in the Gabon estuary. Ogooué expeditions. In June of the year 1862, by order of the Minister for the Navy, Griffon du Bellay was dispatched, aboard the naval vessel "Pionnier" and in the company of ship's lieutenant Paul Augustin Serval, to explore the Ogooué delta. Between July and August 1862 (during which time Griffon du Bellay suffered a debilitating fever) Serval and Griffon du Bellay were able to access the Ogooué via the river Nazaré, but, due to the shallowness of the Ogooué caused by a drop in water levels, they  were obliged to moor their vessel and continue their exploration by pirogue (dugout canoe). Upon reaching the village of Arumba they were forced to abandon their plan to travel farther upstream, owing to the hostility of the villagers. Following this setback, they instead directed their intentions toward Lake Jonanga and its Sacred Isles (Îles sacrées) before pressing onward to Lakes Niogé and Lake Aningué. In December 1862, the two explorers organised a second expedition, setting off on a whaling boat with the objective of finding a passage between the Gabon estuary and the Ogooué via the river Remboué, in the  course of which they were able to reach a village in the neighbourhood of Lambaréné in what is now Moyen-Ogooué Province. Still unwell, since falling ill earlier in the year, Griffon du Bellay was forced to abandon the attempt, while Serval pushed on alone and, with some difficulty was finally able to reach the village of Orongo, inhabited by the Enenga people (a subgroup of the speakers of Myènè), whose King, Rempolé, accorded him, much to his relief, a warm welcome. Ethnobotany. In the course of his stay in Gabon, Griffon du Bellay collected 450 plant species, recording ethnobotanical  information concerning their various uses. Most notable among these were the powerful stimulant and hallucinogen "Tabernanthe iboga" (family Apocynaceae), used in the indigenous Bwiti religion, and the legume "Griffonia simplicifolia", which is rich in the serotonin precursor 5-HTP. He also encountered the use of "Strophanthus hispidus" (family Apocynaceae) as an arrow poison. He later displayed his plant collections in an exhibit at the Exposition universelle d'art et d'industrie de 1867, for which he won two medals. Decorations. Like his father before him, Griffon du Bellay rose to the second degree (officer) in the prestigious Légion d'honneur, France's highest  order of merit for military and civil merits, established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte and retained by all later French governments and régimes. He was also made an "Officier d'instruction publique", the second degree (insignia: golden palms) of the "Ordre des Palmes académiques", a national order bestowed by the French Republic on distinguished academics and teachers and for valuable service to universities, education and science.