Adrien Proust
Adrien Achille Proust was a French epidemiologist and hygienist. He was the father of novelist Marcel Proust and doctor Robert Proust.
Biography
He studied medicine in Paris where obtained his medical doctorate in 1862. Beginning in 1863 he worked as chef de clinique, and in 1866 earned his agrégation with the thesis Des différentes formes de ramollissement du cerveau. In 1869, he was sent on a mission to Russia and Persia in order to conduct cholera research - a journey in which he also visited Athens, Constantinople, Messina and several locations in Germany.He was a professor of hygiene at the faculty of medicine in Paris, and chief physician at the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris. He was a member of the Comité d'Hygiène publique de France and of the Académie de médecine, serving as its secretary from 1883 to 1888.
In 1888, Adrien Proust, believing like many doctors of his day that masturbation may lead to homosexuality, sent his son Marcel to a brothel with 10 francs. Marcel would relate the awkward experience of what occurred there in a letter to his grandfather.