On the 6th of November in that year he plainly saw the living parasites under the microscope in the blood of a malarial patient, and he shortly afterwards communicated his observations to the Paris Academie de Medecine.
Broussais's system, to which he gave the name of "Medecine physiologique," did much indirect good, in fixing attention upon morbid changes in the organs, and thus led to the rise of the strongly opposed anatomical and pathological school of Corvisart, Laennec and Bayle.
He studied medicine in Paris at the newly established Ecole de Medecine, and was appointed by competition prosector when only eighteen years of age.
In 1845 he became assistant to Dumas at the Ecole de Medecine, and four years later began to give lectures on organic chemistry in his place.
His laboratory at the Ecole de Medecine was very poor, and to supplement it he opened a private one in 1850 in the Rue Garenciere; but soon afterwards the house was sold, and the laboratory had to be abandoned.