Some idea of the importance of the position which Cabanis held in the esteem of his associates in the Parisian world of science and politics may be gained from the following statements:—Early in his career he was introduced by Turgot, the former Controller-General, to Madame Helvétius, the widow of the well-known littérateur, Claude Adrien Helvétius, and a woman whose weekly receptions (salons) brought together at frequent intervals some of the most famous men at that time residing in Paris. Thus he became acquainted with Franklin and Jefferson, of the United States, as well as with Diderot and d’Alembert, the famous writers connected with the French Encyclopædia. He was also presented to Voltaire, who received him in the most kindly manner. Although from 1789 to the end of his life he published a number of useful pamphlets on different topics connected with public affairs and especially with public charitable institutions and undertakings, he rarely permitted his name to appear as the author of such essays. In 1799, when the Consulate was entrusted with the government of France, Cabanis accepted a seat in the Senate and took an active interest in public questions. During the last three years of his life the increasingly bad state of his health did not permit him to do much work of any kind; and finally, on May 6, 1808, an attack of cerebral apoplexy put an end to his life.
The two most important works published by Cabanis are the following:—“Rapports du Physique et du Moral de l’Homme,” Paris, 1802 (2d edition in 1805); and “Du Degré de Certitude de la Médecine,” Paris, 1797 (3d edition in 1819).
Félix Vicq-d’Azyr, who was born in 1748, was distinguished chiefly as an anatomist and physiologist, and also as a writer on scientific topics. The Faculty of Paris, not being pleased with his rapid advance in popular favor, refused to allow him the privilege of lecturing in their anatomical theatre. Then Antoine Petit, who was at that time Professor of Anatomy at the “Jardin du Roi,”—an institution which was located in what is now known as the Jardin des Plantes and was in a limited sense a rival of the École de Médecine,—befriended him and did everything in his power to make him successor to himself in the Chair of Anatomy. In this attempt, however, Petit failed, for Portal, whose candidacy was backed by the more influential Buffon, eventually received the appointment. Just at this juncture of affairs Vicq-d’Azyr met with a stroke of good luck. A niece of the celebrated naturalist, Daubenton, who spent a large part of his long life in work connected with the Jardin du Roi, happened one day to have a fainting fit just as she was passing in front of Vicq-d’Azyr’s residence. This physician, who chanced to be at home when the fainting occurred, did everything in his power to restore the lady to consciousness; and in this he was perfectly successful. In fact, not many months elapsed before they were married; and from this time forward Daubenton did everything in his power to advance Vicq-d’Azyr’s career as a scientist. He aided him, for example, in procuring a great variety of foreign animals which the latter needed for his researches in comparative anatomy; and, in addition, he promoted his candidacy for membership in the Académie des Sciences, to which organization he received an election in 1774. Soon afterward he gained the esteem and friendship of Lassonne, the First Physician of the King, and through his influence Vicq-d’Azyr was commissioned to carry assistance to the people living in certain districts of France where an epidemic disease was raging. Later, Lassonne aided him in organizing the Société Royale de Médecine, the function of which was to perfect all the departments of medical activity. Eventually Vicq-d’Azyr was made Secrétaire Perpetuel of this society. The Faculty, as had happened before under similar circumstances, showed itself jealous of this new organization, and systematically did all in its power to undermine the influence of Vicq-d’Azyr, whom it recognized as the guiding spirit of the scheme. Despite these malicious efforts the public at large, recognizing their origin and the mean spirit of jealousy which prompted them, lost no opportunity of bestowing praise upon Vicq-d’Azyr. In 1788 the Académie Française chose him as Buffon’s successor, and in 1789 he succeeded Lassonne as the First Physician of the Queen.
Vicq-d’Azyr’s purely scientific writings are very numerous and of marked importance. They cover a wide extent of subjects—medicine, anatomy (both human and comparative), and the veterinary art. His death occurred on June 25, 1794, from some acute affection of the chest.
The treatises and memoirs which he wrote were first published separately at different dates, but in 1805 a fairly complete collection was published at Paris by Moreau.
Jean-Noel Hallé, born at Paris, France, toward the end of the eighteenth century, was one of the most distinguished physicians of that period. Cuvier, the famous naturalist and the author of the biography upon which the present sketch is based, makes the following statement:—
Those physicians who can steer their way successfully through such a maze of difficulties as existed during the French Revolution, and who at the same time can inspire their patients with a feeling of entire confidence in their ability to bring them safely back to health, deserve our highest admiration and respect. But when we wish, in giving an account of a physician of this calibre, to furnish clear proofs of the truth of what we say, we find it exceedingly difficult to produce the necessary evidence. The names of three such men occur to me, viz., Hallé, Corvisart and Pinel.
In the further course of his narrative Cuvier states that, in his charitable gifts to the poor, Hallé studiously concealed from them the source of the aid which they received. Many a patient, he adds, upon his recovery from the attack for which the doctor had treated him, was astonished to find that all the expenses incurred during his illness had in some mysterious manner been defrayed. “How rarely indeed,” says Cuvier, “does one learn of such a perfect carrying out of the injunction: ‘Let not thy right hand know what thy left hand doeth.’”