Pierre Chirac
Pierre Chirac (born 1650 in Conques; died 1 March 1732 in Marly-le-Roi) was a French physician and member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. He was a Superintendent of the Royal Garden of Medicinal Plants in 1718 and was knighted in 1728 then appointed first physician to Louis  XV in 1730. Life and career. He received his education in Jesuit college in Rodez. After completing these studies, at the age of 28, he went to Montpellier in 1678 to study theology. As private tutor he mentored Isaac Carquet, a pharmacist's son, who received  his medical doctorate in 1684. Chirac also took a liking to medicine, left the clergy and enrolled in 1680 to study medicine. Soon he was hired by Michel Chicoyneau, Chancellor of the Faculty of Medicine, as tutor for his children. During his studies, Chirac focused on anatomy, in which he expanded his knowledge to such an extent that he was allowed to teach courses in this subject himself, even before he was a doctor of medicine. On 3 February 1686 Pierre Chirac with the nickname "Orion I" was elected a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. From  1699 he was a member of the Académie des sciences. Physician in Catalonia and Rochefort. Through the intercession of his colleague Charles de Barbeyrac (1629–1699) to Marshal Anne-Jules de Noailles, who was to command the royal army in Catalonia, Chirac managed in 1692 to obtain the post of doctor in that army. In 1715, he succeeded Wilhelm Homberg as the prince's first doctor.