ABSTRACT
JEAN LOUIS MARC ALIBERT was born in Villefranche-de-Rouergue on May 2, 1768. He began his studies at a local school conducted by the Fathers of the Christian Doctrine, and later entered this order, passing his novitiate at Toulouse. He returned to his home to teach when the law of August 17, 1792 abolished all religious orders in France, and forced him to change his profession. After spending further time at a Paris normal school he was introduced by friends into the well known salon of Mme. Helvetius at Auteuil where he met the influential physicians, Roussel and Cabanis, who persuaded him to go into medicine. He matriculated in the Paris Medical School in 1796, and in 1799 submitted his thesis, A Dissertation on the Pernicious or Ataxic Intermittent Fever. The thesis was widely acclaimed, and the young Alibert began to come into prominence.
