Background
Paul-Jacques Malouin was born on June 27, 1701, in Caen, Basse-Normandie, France to a venerable Caen family. His mother's maiden name was Poupart.
University of Paris, Paris, Ile-de-France, France
Malouin's parents wanted him to pursue a legal career. He was sent to Paris to study law but turned instead to scientific pursuits.
University of Paris, Paris, Ile-de-France, France
Malouin's parents wanted him to pursue a legal career. He was sent to Paris to study law but turned instead to scientific pursuits.
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Paul-Jacques Malouin was born on June 27, 1701, in Caen, Basse-Normandie, France to a venerable Caen family. His mother's maiden name was Poupart.
Malouin's parents wanted him to pursue a legal career. He was sent to Paris to study law but turned instead to scientific pursuits.
After a brief return to his native city from 1730 to 1733, Paul Jacques Malouin settled in the French capital to teach and practice medicine. A relative of Fontenelle, permanent secretary of the Académie Royale des Sciences, Malouin quickly attracted a prominent clientele, which included members of the royal family. He worked as a professor of medicine at the Collège de France from 1767 to 1776. In 1776 he was appointed professor at the Collège Royal where he occupied the Chair of Medicine until his death in January 1778. In his will be provided for the establishment of an annual public meeting at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris to apprise the nation of the most recent medical discoveries and advances. In 1753 Malouin began a formal association with the royal court when he bought from Lassone the position of médecin de la reine (physician to the queen) for the sum of 22,000 livres; he was subsequently made physician to the Dauphine in 1770. Thereafter he spent increasing amounts of time at court, being granted an apartment in the Louvre and having rooms at Versailles.
Malouin complemented his medical career with an active interest in the developing science of chemistry. Elected to the Academy as adjoint chimiste in 1742, he became pensionnaire chimiste in 1766 and director of the Academy for 1772; he was made a fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1753. Malouin’s chemical studies are relatively unimportant, although several memoirs read in 1742 and 1743 on zinc and tin were then useful. A contributor to the early volumes of Diderot’s Encyclopédie, Malouin wrote a number of competent articles on various chemical topics: “Alchimie,” “Antimoine,” “Acide,” and “Alkali.” He worked frequently with Bourdelin, professor of chemistry at the Jardin du Roi, and often lectured in his stead. He also contributed important articles on milling and baking in the Academy’s series Description des Arts et Métiers, applying chemical theory and method to those two trades, vital in the economic and social life of the ancien régime. Malouin’s methods for grinding wheat and mixing flour yielded bread of higher quality.
Paul Jacques Malouin's chemical studies were important for his contemporaries. It was recorded that at the time of his death his fortune amounted to 132,775 livres, 110,000 of which was in the form of state bonds. Another 18,500 was invested in the Compagnie des Indes; his personal possessions were valued at 3,275 livres.
Paul Jacques Malouin emphasized the importance of hygiene and the comprehensive application of chemical remedies and theory to medicine, presenting his findings formally as professor of medicine at the Collège Royal from 1767 to 1775.
There is no information on Paul Jacques Malouin ever being married or having any children.
