François-Vincent Raspail

Independent activity Early socialism 1794–1878 ○ Natural causes

Chemist and physician among the founders of cell theory, socialist candidate in the presidential election of 1848

Born at Carpentras in 1794, the chemist, naturalist and physician was one of the founders of cell theory, an early user of the microscope on plants and an early advocate of antiseptics and sanitation. Drawn into politics after the revolution of 1830, he was president of the Society of the Rights of Man and imprisoned for it. In 1848 he founded a new paper, L'Ami du peuple, and on 15 May read a petition for the Polish insurgents in the invaded Assembly, for which he was arrested. While in prison he was elected deputy for Paris in September and ran fourth as the socialist candidate in the presidential election of December. Sentenced to six years by the High Court at Bourges in 1849, he had his sentence commuted to exile in 1853 and returned in 1862. Elected for Lyon in 1869 and later for Marseille, he remained a popular republican under the Third Republic.