Samuel Pozzi

Vocation

French surgeon and gynecologist, also interested in anthropology and neurology. He was of Swiss/Italian descent. Pozzi established the first Chair of Gynecology in Paris in 1884. In 1889, he performed the first gastroenterostomy in France. In 1896, he was elected to the French Academy of Medicine. In 1897, he was a co-founder of the Revue de gynécologie et de chirurgie abdominale. In 1913, Pozzi and Georges Clemenceau organized the first transplant symposium in Paris. In 1914, he joined the forces again when the First World War broke out and became a military surgeon. In 1879, Pozzi married Therese Loth-Cazalis, heiress of a railroad magnate, and had three children: Catherine, Jean, and Jacques. His wife wanted her mother to live with them, which made for tensions in the marriage. Pozzi also had affairs: with the opera singer Georgette Leblanc, the actress Rejane, the widow of Georges Bizet, Sarah Bernhardt, and Emma Sedelmeyer Fischof. The daughter of an art dealer and wife of a horse breeder, Fischof was a beautiful, cultured woman of Jewish heritage who became Pozzi's mistress in 1890. His wife refused to grant him a divorce, but Firschhof remained his companion for the rest of his life. He died on 13 June 1918. Link to Wikipedia biography