Pierre Cressé

Pierre Cressé was a 17th-century French physician during the reign of Louis XIV.

Biography

He was related to Molière's mother, Marie Cressé.
In 1657 he defended a thesis on the mineral waters of Passy and of Forges-les-Eaux and another thesis on the effect of tea on gout.
An ardent galenist and defender of finalism in medicine, he practised as a docteur regent at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris.
On 31 July 1671, the King Louis XIV appointed François Cureau de La Chambre as a demonstrator operator of the interior of plants of the Botanical Garden . Too busy with his duties, François Cureau de La Chambre appointed Pierre Cressé, to read the lectures, while the surgeon Pierre Dionis performed the actual dissections.
He engaged in a lively dispute with Guillaume Lamy over anatomical treatises, notably concerning the seat of the human soul.