MEDICINE AT THE HEIGHT OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
CHAPTER XVIII
TYPES OF FRENCH PHYSICIANS WHO FLOURISHED ABOUT THE TIME OF THE REIGN OF TERROR
Louis-Guillaume Lemonnier, member of the Academy of the Sciences and First Physician of the King (Louis XV. and also Louis XVI.), was born at Paris, June 27, 1717. His father and his brother were both of them members of the Academy, the former in his character of Professor of Physics at Harcourt, and the latter as one of the most celebrated astronomers of France. At the age of twenty-two he was sent (1739), with Carsini de Thury and Lacaille, to the south of France to extend the meridian of the Observatory of Paris, the task of making scientific observations along the route followed by his superior associates being specially assigned to him. He noted the existence of mines of ochre, coal, iron, antimony and amethysts in Auvergne, of mineral waters in Mont-d’Or, and of mines of iron in Roussillon. He also made analyses of the mineral waters of Barèges, and determined the poisonous nature of certain species of mushrooms. In the same year he received the appointment of Physician to the Hospital at St. Germain-en-Laye, near Paris.
During this period of his career Lemonnier made the acquaintance of an expert floral gardener by the name of Richard, and in his company soon developed a keen interest in flowers and garden plants. The Duke of Ayen, who was one of the King’s favorites and well known for his love of flowers as well as for his boldness of speech in telling the truth to the royal household, made frequent visits to Richard’s garden and in this way acquired a friendship for Lemonnier, who entertained him greatly with his talks about botanical matters and about the cultivation of trees. As a result the Duke’s extensive park in time became the home of rare plants and numerous species of noble trees, many of which were still flourishing during Cuvier’s time. After a while Louis XV. was induced by the Duke to accompany him on some of his visits to Richard’s garden, and on one of these occasions the King asked that Lemonnier should be introduced to him, as he wished to become acquainted with the man who had so successfully aided the Duke in establishing an attractive botanical garden. At this first interview Lemonnier made a most favorable impression upon the King,—so favorable, indeed, that the latter, after a few further interviews had taken place, placed this physician and enthusiastic botanist in charge of the botanical garden at the Trianon, in Versailles; and not long afterward he appointed him his First Physician, a position which carried with it a liberal salary. Cuvier, in accounting for the enthusiastic love for botany which develops in certain men, makes the following remarks:—
In our dealing with plants nothing of a painful nature is encountered; no sad images are ever presented to our eyes; there is absolutely nothing to recall to our minds our passions, our disappointments, our misfortunes; love is never associated with jealousy, beauty exists without vanity, force is never accompanied by tyranny, and death takes place without agony; in brief, there is nothing to remind one of the human species.
The only use that Lemonnier made of his pleasant relationship with the King was to secure his sanction of the plan of sending competent botanists to different parts of the globe with instructions to bring or send back rare plants, first to the Trianon garden at Versailles and, after the death of Louis XV. (in 1774), to the Jardin du Roi (Jardin des Plantes) at Paris. In accordance with this scheme men were despatched to Persia, to the coasts and islands of the Mediterranean, to the banks of the Euphrates, to Cayenne in South America, to the Atlas Mountains, to Liban, to China and to the East Indies.
Costume worn by Paris physicians in the eighteenth century.
(From Alfred Franklin’s “La Vie Privée d’Autrefois,” Paris, 1892.)