Amédée Dumontpallier

Victor Alphonse Amédée Dumontpallier (8 March 1826, Honfleur – 13 January 1899, Paris) was a French gynecologist best known for his studies of hypnotism and metalloscopy (metallotherapy).

In 1857 he received his medical doctorate in Paris, where from 1863 he served as chef de clinique at the Hôtel-Dieu. In 1866 he was named chef de service at the Hôpital de la Pitié in Paris.

From 1860 to 1879 he was a member of the Société de biologie, and in 1892 was elected as a member of the Académie de médecine. In 1891 he was named president of the Société d'hypnologie et de psychologie, an organization of which, he was also a co-founder. In 1886, he co-founded the journal "Revue de l'hypnotisme expérimental et thérapeutique".

He was a prominent member of the so-called "Salpêtrière School of Hypnosis". He described the phenomenon of "bilateral hallucinations" and opposing expressions (double expressions). In his experiments, he demonstrated that a patient under hypnosis could simultaneously show expressions of joy on one side of the face and despair on the other side.

His name is associated with the "Dumontpallier pessary" (Le pessaire de Dumontpallier), a medical device used for uterine prolapse.