Justin Benoît

Justin Benoît (16 April 1813 in Millau – 6 November 1893 in Montpellier) was a French physician and anatomist. Biography Son of Guillaume Benoît and Marie Cabantous, Justin Benoît married Héloïse-Mira Cavalier, daughter of Jacques Cavalier, notary, and Louise Vernet. The Benoît couple had four children, including a daughter, Caroline Benoît, who married General François Perrier in 1872.

Justin Benoit was an active and life-long member of the Reformed Church of Montpellier. He was elected to the Presbyteral Council of the Temple in rue Maguelone, of which he was secretary from 1874 to 1881.

Professional life After being appointed by competitive examination as a student of the “École pratique d'anatomie et de médecine opératoire” (Practical School of Anatomy and Operative Medicine) and after spending seventeen months as a hospital student (“Externe”) in the hospitals of Montpellier, he became an intern at the hospital of Nîmes in 1835. On 20 December 1836, he became an intern at the Montpellier Hospitals and then at the Saint-Eloi Hospital.

Doctor of Medicine in April 1839, he was admitted to the agrégation of the surgical section in 1844 after submitting his first aggregation thesis on 27 December 1842. That same year, he became a practitioner in the “Œuvre de la Miséricorde” in Montpellier, he also took charge of the medical service of the garrisons of Nîmes and then Montpellier.

He was curator of the anatomy collections of the Faculty of Medicine of Montpellier from 1850 to 1853. In 1851 he inaugurated the new buildings of the present Anatomical Museum.

At the Faculty of Medicine, he served as a substitute, then obtained the chair of anatomy in 1853.