Villemin, Jean Antoine

Villemin, Jean Antoine

(born Jan. 28, 1827, Prey, Vosges, France—died Oct. 6, 1892, Paris) French physician. As an army doctor, he observed that healthy young men often developed tuberculosis (TB) living in the close quarters of the barracks. Aware that a similar disease in horses was transmitted by inoculation, he gave TB to rabbits by inoculating them with material from sick humans and cows, proving that it was an infectious disease. His contagion theory, published in 1867, was initially ignored but was later corroborated by other scientists' experiments.