Eynard, Tissot’s biographer, says that up to the end of his life he preferred to carry on his epistolary correspondence in Latin; and yet at the same time he was the author of several medical treatises that were extremely popular. One of them in particular (“L’Avis au Peuple”) passed through many French editions,[[14]] and was translated, in the course of the next twenty-five years, into all the leading European languages. Strange as it may appear to us moderns, this book was not written originally for the general public, but only for the peasants of the Canton de Vaud, who were constantly falling victims to charlatans and itinerant quacks; and yet the universities of Goettingen and Giessen recommended the work as proper reading matter for their students. In order to show the high degree of esteem in which Tissot was held by his fellow citizens of Lausanne, the authorities conferred on him the rights and privileges of citizenship “on account of his praiseworthy efforts to improve the condition of its inhabitants”; and as, in the course of time, the limits of the city were extended, the name “Avenue Dr. Tissot” was bestowed on one of its finest residence streets.
In 1765 Stanislas Augustus, King of Poland, invited Tissot to accept the office of First Physician of his Majesty at Warsaw. Although the invitation was couched in the most friendly terms, Tissot was not willing to leave his beloved Lausanne. All sorts of influences were brought into play by the King to make him change his mind, but his resolution remained fixed. In his reply to the letter Tissot said:—
My first reason for declining your highly flattering offer is this: I am very much attached to my father and mother and to my uncle, who have brought me up from infancy with the tenderest care, and who, owing to their advanced age, are likely at any time to need my aid and advice, and who would be heartbroken if I were to go far away from them. My second reason consists in the sentiment that I am not in any way fitted to fill such a position with entire satisfaction to all the interests concerned, for it involves many important duties beside that of watching over your health—as, for example, the superintendence of the different institutions in your kingdom which are devoted to the preservation of the health of your subjects; the duty of reporting to you any evidences of mismanagement that I may discover and the suggestion of such new measures as are likely to remedy any such deficiencies; the promotion of the efficiency of your schools of medicine, surgery, midwifery, pharmacy, etc.; and, last of all, there is the important consideration that my position here in Lausanne is in every respect most satisfactory to me. Why, then, should I abandon these surroundings in which my life is most happy, for a position in which I might easily lose a large part of this happiness?
Notwithstanding Tissot’s decided refusal to accept the flattering offer made by King Stanislas, the latter did not give up all hope of persuading him eventually to accept the position of First Physician. Three times in succession, at short intervals, he sent him a renewal of the invitation, each time adding some fresh inducement in the hope of overcoming Tissot’s objections; and, just as the latter had nearly made up his mind to yield to the King’s urgent request—the death of his much-beloved uncle a few days previously having removed one of the strongest obstacles in the way of his acceptance—the ruling authorities of the Academy of Lausanne notified him that a Chair of Medicine had been created by them and that he had been appointed its first occupant. Stanislas then at last recognized that he must definitely abandon his cherished project, and he accordingly sent a fine portrait of himself to Tissot, with a charming letter in which he said:—
I am truly afflicted by your decision, but I take comfort in the thought that probably my persistent efforts to bring you to Warsaw had something to do with hastening the decision of the Berne authorities to establish the Chair of Medicine at Lausanne for your benefit. I congratulate you on your good fortune and your compatriots on their having had the wisdom to appreciate the value of your services to Switzerland. I pray God, Monsieur Tissot, that He may have you in safe keeping.
Stanislas Augustus, King
Warsaw, March 5, 1765.
Lausanne in 1765, it should here be stated, still recognized the Bernese Government as its overlord. It was only at a somewhat later date that it acquired entire independence.
In closing this brief account of Tissot’s correspondence with the King of Poland, I ought to add that it was largely through the intercession of Albrecht von Haller, the distinguished physiologist and himself a citizen of the Swiss metropolis, that the senators at Berne were induced to found a Chair of Medicine at Lausanne for the express purpose of preventing Tissot from leaving Switzerland. I also should state that Tissot himself was entirely ignorant at the time that von Haller had been instrumental in effecting the establishment of this new professorship at Lausanne.
Here is an anecdote which is told by Lantier in his book “Les Voyageurs en Suisse.” While it relates only indirectly to Tissot it furnishes an amusing illustration of what may easily happen in the experience of any physician who has a large office practice:—