[Paul-Louis Simond and Guyana]

On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of P.-L. Simond's discovery of the flea as vector of plague, the author recounts several episodes of the history of French Guyana where P.-L. Simond had his first position, starting with the official establishment of France in Cayenne in July 1898. During his stay in Guyana (1882-1886), P.-L. Simond directed the leper hospital in Acarouany, near Saint-Laurent du Maroni; it was there that he found the subject for his doctoral dissertation in medicine which he defended after completing his studies at the navy medical school of Bordeaux and which was entitled: "Leprosy and its means of spread in French Guyana".