The two most distinguished military surgeons in Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were Desgenettes and Baron Larrey, both of them natives of France.
Aimé-Nicolas Dufriche Desgenettes was born at Alençon, France, in 1762. His early medical training was obtained at the University of Montpellier, and the degree of Doctor of Medicine was bestowed upon him in 1789. Four years later he entered the French military service and participated in the campaign of Egypt and Syria, during which he rapidly rose to the position of Chief Physician in that part of the army which was officially designated as the Army of Italy. In 1802, after the close of the campaign, he was appointed First Physician of the Military Hospital at Paris, and at the same time was given the position of General Inspector of the Health Department of the Armies. From that time to the year 1814 he visited, in his official capacity, Russia, Prussia and Spain; and amid scenes of carnage and destruction he never failed to display the character of a high-minded physician, a benevolent and guardian spirit. His career as a medical officer was largely that of a man of action, who exhibited at the same time a keen sympathy for those who stood in need of his services. To quote the words of his biographer, “he extended his cares to the sick of all nations,—to the Turk and the Christian, to the men of the South as well as to those of the North, and, as disinterested also as the Great Hippocrates, he retired poor from his labors, though he might easily have made himself rich. Often placed in opposition to military power and faction, he always exhibited an unwavering inflexibility and energy of character. His thorough knowledge of men and things, his skill in the practice of his art, and his vigorous and unbending mind distinguished him for more than twenty years at the head of the medical service of the French armies.”
This splendid showing, I venture to remark, could scarcely have been realized if Bonaparte had not been endowed with two admirable traits of character. In the first place, he seemed to possess almost infallibly correct judgment in his choice of men who were to act as generals or as chief surgeons of his various armies; and then, in the second place, he was in the habit of supporting these men loyally whenever, later on in their career, disputes arose as to the wisdom or patriotic purpose of their decisions. The history of the wars that occurred from 1793 to 1814, between France and the different European nations which opposed her, abounds in instances that confirm the truth of what I have just stated. Corvisart, it is also highly probable, deserves much of the credit for Bonaparte’s loyal treatment of his chief army surgeons.
The biographer of Desgenettes relates two occurrences which throw additional light upon the nobility of character of this admirable physician. These occurrences are briefly narrated as follows:—
A contagious disease appeared in the Army of the East and spread rapidly from one man to another. The soldiers were struck with terror and despair, and were ready to die, merely because they considered death imminent and inevitable.... Monsieur Desgenettes assured them that the hideous buboes with which they were covered were not symptoms of the plague, and he proved it. How? By the following heroic experiment. He took the matter of these buboes and inoculated himself in the presence of the soldiers. This proof was conclusive in their eyes, hope was again kindled in their bosoms, and the mortality diminished. Here is one of those brilliant actions which history delights to preserve and transmit from age to age.
DESGENETTES
On another occasion Desgenettes manifested equally great courage. The occurrence is narrated by his biographer in these words:—
Made prisoner in the retreat from Russia, he demanded boldly his liberty, not as a favor, but as a right; he invoked the sacredness of his ministry and in particular the cares which he had lavished alike on the Russians and on the French. An imperial ukase immediately rendered him his liberty. The Emperor Alexander called him into his presence and expressed to him his sentiments of high esteem and regard. He received soon after from Sweden the order of the Polar Star.