 In 1863 he became a health specialist in Alexandria, then in 1875 was appointed director of the Cairo medical school.In addition to his medical duties, he conducted botanical, zoological, geological and archaeological research in Egypt and the Middle East.The snail genus "Gaillardotia" (Bourguignat, 1877; family Neritidae) honors his name, as do species with epithet of "gaillardotii", an example being "Echinops gaillardotii" (Gaillardot's globe-thistle).