{"id":161,"date":"2013-05-07T23:43:10","date_gmt":"2013-05-07T23:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dittrickmuseumblog.com\/?p=161"},"modified":"2017-10-26T10:30:21","modified_gmt":"2017-10-26T14:30:21","slug":"medical-paris-1852","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/dittrick\/2013\/05\/07\/medical-paris-1852\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical Paris, 1852"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I\u2019ve enjoyed reading David McCullough\u2019s\u00a0The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris<\/a><\/i>\u00a0(2011), somewhat to my own surprise.\u00a0 Not that he\u2019s a bad author in any way, but I have sometimes been disappointed by the \u201chistory-lite\u201d tone of some of his writing (1776\u00a0<\/i>is the most flagrant example that comes to mind).<\/div>\n
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But\u00a0The Greater Journey<\/i>\u00a0does not disappoint in this manner.\u00a0 It delves into the experience of Americans drawn to Paris in the 19th\u00a0century, including a legion of American medical students and doctors flocking to Paris between 1815 and 1860.\u00a0 Having read John Harley Warner\u2019s masterful\u00a0Against the Spirit of System: The French Impulse in Nineteenth-Century American Medicine\u00a0<\/i>(2003), I fully expected McCullough to have simply creamed off the best of John\u2019s work.\u00a0 Somehow it didn\u2019t read that way and I can heartily recommend\u00a0The Greater Journey<\/i>.\u00a0 I was actually sorry to finish the book! Perhaps I\u2019m a softy, however.\u00a0 I spent a seminal year in Paris, researching my dissertation on a Fulbright, and I cherish very fond memories of that time. So McCullough\u2019s book really resonates.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Additionally, it led me to uncover some marvelous views of medical Paris in the 1850s, as found in\u00a0Tableau de Paris<\/a><\/i>\u00a0by Edmond Texier.\u00a0 The first volume of\u00a0Tableau<\/i>\u00a0appeared in 1852 and featured not only images of the school, but a glimpse of the lives of medical students, which I found utterly charming.\u00a0 This remarkable work, issued in two volumes (1852-1853) by Paulin and Le Chevalier, featured 1500 plates engraved from drawings by\u00a0Blanchard, Cham, Champin, Forest, Fran\u00e7ais, Gavarni, G\u00e9rard-S\u00e9guin, J.J. Grandville, Lami, Pauquet, Renard, Roussel, Valentin, Vernet, and others.\u00a0 Edward Valentin and Edouard Renard executed most of the medical school drawings.<\/div>\n
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Vue ext\u00e9rieure de l’\u00c9cole de m\u00e9decine de Paris.<\/div>\n
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Le grand amphith\u00e9\u00e2tre.<\/div>\n
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Un examen dans la salle des instruments.<\/div>\n
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Int\u00e9rieur du cabinet d’anatomie compar\u00e9e.<\/div>\n
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La galerie d’anatomie compar\u00e9e.<\/div>\n
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Student life<\/b><\/div>\n
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From the text, describing life outside the classroom, lecture hall, or dissection room:<\/div>\n
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Ordinarily<\/i>\u00a0the room of a medical\u00a0student\u00a0is\u00a0found\u00a0perched\u00a0on a\u00a0landing reached by a\u00a0dark, winding staircase,\u00a0which begins\u00a0at the bottom of\u00a0a narrow\u00a0and obscure\u00a0passage. It is furnished\u00a0in patriarchal\u00a0simplicity: bed,table,\u00a0chairs,\u00a0and\u00a0also a\u00a0wardrobe and\u00a0a\u00a0secretary\u00a0usually\u00a0covered withhuman\u00a0bones.\u00a0This is the\u00a0look of the room\u00a0of\u00a0the young\u00a0student:\u00a0a\u00a0fullcomplement of\u00a0mortuary\u00a0ornamentation\u00a0that serves as\u00a0the\u00a0teaching\u00a0material for his profession.\u00a0A\u00a0skull\u00a0serves as\u00a0tobacco pot,\u00a0another as a\u00a0candlestick; bones pleasingly\u00a0arranged as a cross or\u00a0saltire.\u00a0 The richest\u00a0studentpossesses\u00a0a\u00a0child\u2019s\u00a0skeleton mounted by his own hand. But\u00a0be not afraid.Laughter,\u00a0joy,\u00a0juvenile\u00a0exuberance\u00a0prevail in\u00a0the middle of this\u00a0funeraryequipment.\u00a0Sometimes\u00a0you\u2019ll see a woman\u2019s hat sitting between a denuded tibia and the debris\u00a0of\u00a0a\u00a0spinal column,\u00a0or\u00a0a\u00a0shawl\u00a0thrown\u00a0carelessly\u00a0on thetable\u00a0covered with\u00a0bones, paper, and extinguished tobacco\u00a0pipes.\u00a0\u00a0But his usual occupations\u00a0are so\u00a0repulsive\u00a0to\u00a0the fair sex,\u00a0that\u00a0he must muster all\u00a0hiscleverness\u00a0and\u00a0mastery of amorous endeavor,\u00a0if he hopes to\u00a0overcome\u00a0the disgust\u00a0that always accompanies\u00a0his\u00a0medical\u00a0matter.<\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Chambre garnie.<\/div>\n
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Un oncle mort tr\u00e8s-jeune.<\/div>\n
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Traitement des vapeurs.<\/div>\n
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Anatomie compar\u00e9e.<\/div>\n
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The hospital scene is also captured, notably the now long-gone Hotel Dieu that occupied the\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00cele de la cit\u00e9, in front of Notre Dame, along the banks of the Seine.<\/div>\n
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Hotel Dieu<\/div>\n
demolition for bridge construction<\/div>\n
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completed bridge, 1860<\/div>\n
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L’infirmerie.<\/div>\n
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Check out the great\u00a0panoramas of the Grand\u00a0boulevards of Paris, from the Bastille to the Madeleine,\u00a0from Tableau de Paris, as seen in the\u00a0blog<\/a>\u00a0by the rare book dealer\u00a0Julien Mannoanni.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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And there’s always the street quack, seen here dispensing electrotherapy treatments.Plus \u00e7a change…<\/i><\/p>\n

About the blogger
\n<\/b><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
James Edmonson <\/b>is Chief Curator of the Dittrick Medical History Center and Museum of Case Western Reserve University, and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of History. Publications include American Surgical Instruments (1997) and Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine, 1880-1930 (Blast Books, 2009).\u00a0 Dr. Edmonson serves as American liaison to and Secretary General of the European Association of Museums of the History of Medical Sciences. Read more here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve enjoyed reading David McCullough\u2019s\u00a0The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris<\/a><\/i>\u00a0(2011), somewhat to my own surprise.\u00a0 Not that he\u2019s a bad author in any way, but I have sometimes been disappointed by the \u201chistory-lite\u201d tone of some of his writing (1776\u00a0<\/i>is the most flagrant example that comes to mind).<\/p>\n

But\u00a0The Greater Journey<\/i>\u00a0does not disappoint in this manner.\u00a0 It delves into the experience of Americans drawn to Paris in the 19th\u00a0century, including a legion of American medical students and doctors flocking to Paris between 1815 and 1860.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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