René Quinton
René Quinton (15 December 1866, Chaumes-en-Brie – 9 July 1925, Paris) was a French biologist who held the position of assistant at the Laboratoire de Physiologie pathologique des Hautes-Études at the Collège de France (title page of L’eau de mer, milieu organique, 2nd ed., 1912). His mentor was Étienne Jules Marey, professor of natural history at the Collège de France (Wikipedia, René Quinton, accessed 2026-06-27).
Before turning to biology, Quinton spent approximately a decade in literary pursuits. He shifted to laboratory science in the 1890s, influenced by the vitalist tradition in French physiology. His single published book during his lifetime, L’eau de mer, milieu organique, appeared first in 1904 and was reissued in 1912. From 1905 he operated a private laboratory producing the filtered seawater preparation he called marine plasma or sérum de Quinton. He patented the preparation in 1907 and opened the first Marine Dispensary in Paris in 1906 (quinton.bio/about-us/rene-quinton, accessed 2026-06-27), with a second in Lyon by 1913 (quinton.bio/about-us/laboratory-history, accessed 2026-06-27).
In 1908 Quinton co-founded the Ligue Nationale Aérienne and served as its president, simultaneously pursuing his biological research and his dispensary network. At the outbreak of World War I he volunteered for service above the standard conscription age, served as a reserve artillery captain, rose to colonel by the war’s end, was wounded eight times across more than twenty documented battlefronts, and was awarded the Légion d’honneur at Chevalier (20 July 1916), Officier (10 July 1917), and Commandeur (16 June 1920) levels, the Croix de Guerre with five palms and two stars, and equivalent decorations from Belgium, the United Kingdom, and the United States (Wikipedia, René Quinton, accessed 2026-06-27).
Quinton died suddenly in Paris on 9 July 1925, aged 58, of cardiac angina. A bronze monument by sculptor Paul Dardé was erected in his birthplace Chaumes-en-Brie in 1931; German occupation forces melted it in 1941. His therapies were eventually abandoned by mainstream medicine and removed from the Vidal physicians’ reference; the French AMM for the preparations was revoked in 1993 (quinton.bio/about-us/laboratory-history, accessed 2026-06-27).