Auguste and Louis Lumière, inventors at the service of the suffering

Abstract

One evening in 1877 in a cave in Brittany, two children with the prophetic name of Lumière swore an oath: they swore they would work together all their lives. Thirty years of work followed, with hundreds of scientific papers presented to scientific societies and over 200 books. Together, Auguste and Louis Lumière wrote a masterpiece, a complete chapter in the history of the world. If history remembers them for the invention of the cinematograph and the discovery of autochromatic plates, it should definitely glorify them for their commitment to the suffering. Their involvement in medical photography and surgical cinema has enabled generations of medical students to learn examination and surgical techniques. These workers with big hearts spent their lives resolving the problems of humanity. A motto led them throughout their long journey: “Persistence in work, look upwards, learn beyond, continue to rise.” Louis made the following conclusions on his life: “I always enjoyed resolving problems... I was a born enthusiast—one gets older slower because one is always waiting for something.” During the Great War, their commitment to the wounded was total: their generosity and inventiveness enabled them to save hundreds of lives. Auguste Lumière devoted the last 40 years of his life to medicine and biology. While his neo-Hippocratic theories were rapidly contradicted by science, he was an extraordinary “stimulator of ideas”, a nonconformist scientist at the service of those who were suffering socially and medically. He concluded: “I have done some good—that is my best work.”