Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Isthuanfi, Nicolas

​ISTHUANFI, Nicolas (iss-too-ahn'-fe), Hun- garian physician, b. in Comorn in 1742 ; d. in Paramaribo in 1806. He went to the West In- dies as soon as he was graduated in Vienna, prac- tised medicine in St. Eustache, and was ap- pointed president of the sanitary board of Dutch Gxiiana in 1773. A few years later Baron Malouet, governor of French Guiana, engaged Isthuanfi, with others, to reorganize the French sanitary system, and his timely measures checked an epi- demic of yellow fever and Asiatic cholera that broke out in Cayenne in 1781. He also thorough- ly disinfected the city, and persuading the author- ities to offer rewards for the erection of handsome residences. At the beginning of the revolution in 1789, Isthuanfi still held the office of president of the board of health, but during the ensuing troubles his advice was often ignored, and he was even imprisoned in 1793. He escaped to Paramaribo, bought an estate, and devoted the remainder of his life to agricultural experiments. He published " Traite de pharmacie moderne " (Cayenne, 1781) ; " Traite de la fievre jaune " (1786) ; " Les mala- dies de la Guyane " (1787) ; " Medicinske Voorden- bock gefolged van een Verhandling over planten voor medicinske gebroek " (Paramaribo, 1801) ; and " Les Guianes, sont-elles malsaines ? experience d'un medecin " (1801).

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