Barthélemy-Valentin de Lavacherie
When the University of Liège was founded, Barthélemy-Valentin de Lavacherie was one of its students. He completed his training as a surgeon. He taught surgery at the University from 1835, and was rector for the 1847-1848 academic year.
Born in Eysden in 1798, surgeon Barthélemy-Valentin de Lavacherie took his first lessons at the École de Médecine de Liège, before continuing his training at the brand-new University, which he joined in 1817 and where he obtained his doctorate in 1821. In 1824, after a stay in Paris, he settled in Liège, where he gained a reputation as a man of the arts devoted to the underprivileged.
He joined the Faculty of Medicine as a lecturer, with responsibility for the surgical clinic, and was admitted to the ordinariate in 1841, before also being elected to the Royal Academy of Medicine. Two years later, de Lavacherie was awarded the Order of Leopold for his heroic actions during a railroad accident on the line between Brussels and Liège. This incident illustrates the humanity of a discreet man who died just a few days after the end of his mandate as rector in 1848.
Il est incontestable que le perfectionnement dans les arts et dans l’industrie ne date que du jour où l’on a compris que, pour exceller dans une branche, il fallait la cultiver d’une manière passionnée et exclusive, sans pour cela ignorer toutes les autres qui ont avec elle quelque connexité.
It is said of him
"A [train] leaving Brussels for Liège, of which de Lavacherie was a member, had one of its carriages set on fire on the way. The fire threatened to spread to the other carriages, and the frightened passengers, in order to escape the danger [...] wanted to rush pell-mell onto the track [...] De Lavacherie, at a glance, saw the danger [...] and, with admirable composure, opposed their attempts to abandon the carriages still in motion. Once the train had stopped, he changed roles; he multiplied his efforts to dress the wounded [...] Thanks to him, thanks to his firmness, we did not have to deplore the death of a large number of people so fatally exposed to perish" (Dr Marinus, "Notice sur de Lavacherie", Moniteur belge, 1856, n° 304, p. 4285).
Go to : Charles Joseph Adolphe Borgnet
Illustration : Barthélemy-Valentin de Lavacherie, lithographie, s.d., , Musée Wittert ULiège, inv. 39670.
