Born 14 April in Ay, Marne, France. Son of Jean-Baptiste Louis, vineyard owner and Marie-Louise Charlotte Hémart.

Studied medicine in Rheims, and then in Paris.

Defends his medical thesis (Doctor of Medicine) in Paris on 18 June.

Traveled to Russia, obtains a medical title in St Petersburg, and opens a successful practice in Odessa.

Returned to Paris. Although he never held a position at the School of Medicine, he had access to the hospital wards of La Charité and Hôtel-Dieu, where he made extensive clinical observations and performed a very large number of autopsies.

Published Observations relatives aux perforations spontanées de l’intestin grêle dans les maladies aiguës.

Appointed ‘Adjoint résident de l’Académie’ on 6 September. Published Recherches anatomico-pathologiques sur la phtisie. Précédées du rapport fait à l’Académie royale de médecine par MM Bourdois, Royer-Collard et Chomel. Paris :Gabon & Cie. 1825.

Left La Charité to analyse and write up his clinical observations.

Went to Bruxelles (because it was quieter and cheaper there) to write his book on typhoid fever.

Went to Gibraltar as an expert to investigate an epidemic of yellow fever. Appointed physician at La Pitié. Marries a daughter of the Marquis de Montferrier

Published Recherche sur les effets de la saignée dans plusieurs maladies inflammatoires. Archives générales de médecine 1828;18: 321-336.

Published Recherches anatomiques, pathologiques et thérapeutiques sur la maladie connue sous les noms de gastro-entérite, fièvre putride, adynamique, ataxique, typhoïde, etc., comparée avec les maladies aiguës les plus ordinaires. Paris: J-B Ballière, 1829.

Although he was never a professor, he was the most famous Parisian teacher of clinical medicine during this era.

Published Généralités sur l’enseignement de la médecine, clinique, ou idée succincte de la méthode à suivre dans l’examen des malades et dans la recherche des faits généraux. Paris: No. 326, Concours, 1831.

Le Société médicale d’observation is founded by three Genevois students of Louis - Marc D’Espine, Théodore Maunoir and John Bizot. Louis is made President for Life.

Published Examen de l’examen de M. Broussais, relativement à la phtisie et à l’affection typhoïde. Paris: J-B Baillère, 1834.

Published Recherches sur les effets de la saignée dan quelques maladies inflammatoires, et sur l’action de l’émétique et des vésicatoires dans la pneumonie. Paris: J-B Ballière, 1835.

A manuscript recording observations made by Louis and M Trousseau, both members of the French commission at Gibraltar, on anatomical, pathological and therapeutic research on yellow fever in Gibraltar in 1828. Published in a translation by GC Shattuck (Boston: CC Little & J Brown, 1839)

French version of ‘Anatomical, pathological and therapeutic researches on the yellow fever of Gibraltar of 1828’, published in volume II of the Mémoires de la Société Médicale d’Observation.

Louis’ son Armand developed tuberculosis. Louis abandoned his hospital positions in Paris to take care of his son, who died in July 1854, at the age of 18. Louis then retired from active medical life.

Louis died on August 22, aged 85, and was buried in the cemetery at Montparnasse, in Paris.