As Lemonnier was not in the habit of publishing anything on botanical subjects, he was comparatively unknown to the public. Were it not for this fact, says Cuvier, he would easily have taken rank among the most celebrated botanists of France. When his friends chided him for having neglected to avail himself of this mode of obtaining well-earned recognition he replied that the time spent in instructing others is lost so far as his own self-instruction is concerned. Furthermore, he was timid in regard to publishing. “There is sure to be a great deal of unjust criticism about anything a man may write, and I cannot easily bear such injustice. I therefore prefer to keep silence.”
Upon the death of Louis XV. Lemonnier lost his position of First Physician to the King and he was not reappointed by Louis XVI. until 1788. Thus, during a period of fourteen years, he was deprived of the large salary which is attached to that position, and was obliged to live upon the relatively small income which he derived from private practice. During the continuance of his official connection with the Court he invariably refused to accept any fees from those individuals who belonged to the Court circle but yet held no official position. On the other hand, he was most generous in giving the best of his service, gratis, to the poor. As a consequence, his popularity among the lower classes was very great. He reaped the reward for this disinterestedness on the occasion when the mob, in 1792, invaded Versailles and carried off the King and Marie Antoinette to Paris. As soon as the palace was vacated Lemonnier sought safety in one of the small pavilions in the adjoining park; but the rabble broke into the building and were carrying off Lemonnier as a prisoner when suddenly a man, who seemed to be one of the leaders of the mob, stepped out from the crowd and ordered the physician to follow him. Thus Lemonnier was conducted to his room in the Luxembourg palace in Paris, all the time under the guidance of this strange, rough-looking man, who nevertheless, when they arrived at the Luxembourg, acknowledged to the doctor that he intended, from the very first, to save his life if he possibly could, because he was sure, “from the kindly and venerable expression of his countenance, that he could not possibly have had anything to do with the abuses of which the rabble complained so bitterly.” Thus was Lemonnier rewarded for all his past services to the poor of Paris and Versailles.
During the last years of his life—he was eighty-two years old when he died—he enjoyed, in the quiet society of his former friends, who stood by him faithfully to the end, what he termed the happiest years of his life.
Charles Louis Dumas, born at Lyons, France, on February 8, 1765, was the son of a practicing surgeon. At the age of seventeen he began the study of medicine at Montpellier, Barthez and Grimaud being at that time the most distinguished members of the Medical Faculty of that university. From the very first he manifested a keen interest in his studies. In 1785 he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine, the title of his graduating thesis being: “An Essay on Life, or the Vital Faculties.” In 1787 he visited Paris, and during the following two years devoted his attention chiefly to chemistry and to the study of human anatomy. It was during this period that he became warmly attached to Vicq-d’Azyr.
In 1790 he returned to Montpellier and took part in a competition for the chair of surgery left vacant by the death of Sabatier. Although the judges decided in favor of another competitor they were most favorably impressed with the talents which Dumas exhibited. A year later, upon the death of Barthélemy Vigaroux, Dumas accepted the position of Vice-Professor of Surgery in the same university, but, owing to the political troubles which developed at this time in Lyons, he was obliged to resign his chair at the end of one year and return to his native city. After the termination of the siege of Lyons he was expelled from the city, narrowly escaping with his life. In 1793 all teaching of medicine at the University of Montpellier ceased, and two years later a new school of medicine was organized, and the duty of teaching anatomy and physiology was assigned to Dumas. In 1798 he was chosen President of the school and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Montpellier. He died on March 28, 1813, at the early age of forty-seven.
The more important of the treatises written and published by Dumas are the following:—“Principes de Physiologie,” Paris, 1800–1803, 4 vols., and “Doctrine Générale des Maladies Chroniques, etc.,” Montpellier, 1812, and a second edition (2 vols.) in 1824.
Pierre-Jean-Georges Cabanis was born June 5, 1757, at the village of Conac, in the Department of Corrèze, France. During his early youth he gave no evidence whatever of possessing an inclination to study, but at the age of fourteen he was taken to Paris, and then, for the first time, he manifested great eagerness to acquire all kinds of knowledge. After having completed his preliminary course of literary training he accepted the position of private secretary to Prince Massalsky, Bishop of Wilna, and accompanied him on his return to Poland. A residence of two years in that distracted country convinced him, however, that he had better return to France and seek there for an opening to some useful career. Accordingly he went to Paris, and, upon learning that a prize for a French translation, in verse, of a part of Homer’s Iliad had been offered by the Académie Française, he devoted all his time and energy to the writing of such a translation. Richerand, from whose eulogy on Cabanis I have derived most of the information furnished in the present sketch, does not state whether these efforts were or were not rewarded by the capture of the coveted prize. His account, however, makes it perfectly clear that Cabanis was an enthusiastic admirer of the poetry of Homer and that he would gladly have devoted his life to the cultivation of literature if he had not, at the same time, been deeply impressed with the idea that a good citizen should devote a large share of his time and his talents to things of real use to his fellow men and to his native or adopted country. Accordingly, in due course of time, he set aside his purely literary employment and began in earnest the study of medicine, to which vocation he now transferred his allegiance with all the ardor of which he was capable. Hippocrates, whose accurate descriptions of disease and whose high standard of professional duty excited his admiration as much as had the writings of Homer, furnished him with the first models that were to serve as guides in his newly chosen career. To add to his good fortune he had the privilege of studying medicine under the guidance of Dubreuil, a teacher of the very highest order, a philosopher, and a man of whom the pupil always spoke in strong terms of admiration and affection.
After taking his doctor’s degree in 1784 Cabanis devoted all his energies, during the few years which elapsed between this event and the breaking out of the French Revolution, to the practice of his profession. Aside from these duties he accepted only one official responsibility, viz., that of Administrator of the Hospitals of Paris, and this duty he performed with entire success. It is a fact worth noting that he was one of Mirabeau’s intimate friends, and he believed thoroughly in the principles of the French Revolution, but he did not approve of the excesses which characterized its progress.