Alyce du Chessé (1452-1533) was a pioneering medical researcher and educator who revolutionized medical training in the Empire of Australia. Born in New Bordeaux to a family of French origin, she studied under the renowned physician Jacqueline de Montfort at the Académie Impériale before traveling extensively throughout the Empire’s territories to learn various medical traditions.
In 1482, with the support of Eleanor the Fourteenth through Décret 1539, she established the Laboratoire du Corps in New Bordeaux. The institution was revolutionary for its time, combining traditional European medical knowledge with healing practices from the Māori, Arabic, and Asian territories within the Empire. The school was also notable for accepting both male and female students from its founding, unusual for the period, which saw mostly female students tasked with medicine and the sciences.
Du Chessé’s most significant contribution was her development of the “Méthode Systématique,” a comprehensive approach to medical diagnosis that combined physical examination, patient history, and laboratory analysis. Her seminal work, “Traité de la Médecine Moderne” (1507), became a cornerstone text of medical education throughout the Empire and beyond.
The Laboratoire du Corps gained particular prominence during the Great Plague of 1511, when du Chessé’s innovative quarantine protocols helped contain the outbreak in New Bordeaux. This success led Eleanor the Fifteenth to grant the institution imperial patronage through Décret 1552, establishing it as the premier medical training facility in the Empire.
Today, the Laboratoire du Corps remains one of the world’s most prestigious medical schools, housed in its original limestone buildings along the Rue de la Médecine in New Bordeaux’s Academic Quarter.