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Theophile de Bordeu (1722-1776), French physician. Theophile de Bordeu was born in Ossau Valley in the French Pyrenees in 1722. He studied medicine in Montpellier. In 1755, he presented his idea of an internal secretion, similar to what are now called hormones. He particularly stressed the importance of "emanations" from the testicles and ovaries in influencing the secondary sex characteristics. De Bordeu is also credited with the development of Pyrenean hydrotherapy (the use of water to treat illness).