Jean Marc Gaspard Itard

Jean Marc Gaspard Itard (24 April 1774, Oraison, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence – 5 July 1838, Paris) was a French medical doctor born in Provence. He is perhaps best known for his work with Victor of Aveyron.

Career Itard, without a university education and working at a Marseilles bank, was forced to enter the army during the French Revolution, but presented himself as a physician at that time. After working as a health officer at a military hospital in Soliers, he was given the role of surgeon third class in the Army of Italy.

Victor of Aveyron Itard is known as an educator of the deaf, and tried his educational theories in the celebrated case of Victor of Aveyron, dramatized in the 1970 motion picture The Wild Child directed by François Truffaut, who also played Itard. However, he was disappointed with the progress he made with Victor.

Other works In 1821, Itard published a major work on otology, describing the results of his medical research based on over 170 detailed cases. He is credited with the invention of a Eustachian catheter that is referred to as "Itard's catheter". Numbness in the tympanic membrane during otosclerosis has the eponymous name of "Itard-Cholewa Symptom".

On 5 July 1838, at the age of 64, Jean Marc Gaspard Itard died in Paris, France.

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