[Iodine usage about 1880 by Antoine de Finance's formulary].

After the discovery of iodine by Courtois in 1812, this metal was very much in vogue for all the XIXth century for the treatment of numerous diseases. Antoine de Finance (1846-1898), family physician, described iodine and iodine derivatives usage in his own formulary, following the usual contemporary references (Bouchardat, Dorvault). As for those references, iodine was useful for diseases as different as lung diseases, tumors and syphilis but he added angor. As opposed to Bouchardat that used more than 129 formulations for iodine and iodine derivatives, Antoine de Finance is limited to 6 of them. This trend of using iodine for medicine will continue after the XIXth century and will remain essential at the beginning of the XXth century with the discovery of stable iodinated oils such as Lipiodol created in 1901 and first used for syphilis. This therapeutic usage of iodine will remain until today for preventive and curative treatment of iodine deficiency disorders.