The Self-Made Mandarin: The Éloges of the French Academy of Medicine,1824–47

Weisz George , “Constructing the medical elite in France: The creation of the Royal Academy of Medicine, 1814–1820”, Medical history, xxx (1986), 303–21. Although there exists no good historical study of the institution, one can read with profit Ganière Paul , L'Académie de Médecine: Ses origines et son histoire (1964) and Centenaire de l'Académie de Médecine (1921). All French titles were published in Paris unless stated otherwise.

On the cult of great men during the eighteenth century see Bonnet Jean-Claude , “Naissance du Panthéon”, Poétique, xxxiii (1978), 46–55; Ozouf Mona , “Le Panthéon: L'École normale des morts”, in Nora Pierre (ed.), Les lieux de mémoire, i: La République (1984). On its manifestation in popular culture, Tatin Jean-Jacques , “L'Homme du peuple au Panthéon”, Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine, xxxii (1985), 537–60 and “Relation de l'actualité, réflexion politique et culte des grandes hommes dans les almanachs de 1760 à 1793”, Annales historiques de la révolution française, lvii (1985), 307–16. On its architectural impact, Etlin Richard A. , The architecture of death: The transformation of the cemetery in eighteenth-century Paris (Boston, 1984), as well as Jean Starobinski's review in New York review of books, vol. xxxii, nos xxi and xxii (1986), 16–20.

On Academic éloges see Bonnet Jean-Claude , “Les morts illustres: Oraison funèbre, éloge académique, nécrologie”, in Nora Pierre (ed.), Les lieux de mémoire, ii: La nation, t.3 (1986), 217–41; Roche Daniel , “Talents, raison et sacrifice: Les médecins vus par eux mêmes”, Annales ESC, xxxii (1977), 866–86, and Le siècle des lumières en province: Académie et académiciens provinciaux, 1680–1789 (1978), 166–80; Outram Dorinda , “The language of natural power: The éloges of Georges Cuvier and the public language of nineteenth century science”, History of science, xvi (1978), 153–78; Paul Charles B. , Science and immortality: The éloges of the Paris Academy of Sciences (1699–1791) (Berkeley, 1980). On éloges in the context of the development of biography see Madelénat Daniel , La biographie (1984), 32–63.

The best summary of such justifications of éloges as historical notices rather than panegyrics is F. Dubois d'Amiens's introduction to his Éloges académiques (1872), pp. iii–lxiv, which develops the ideas of earlier writers like Thomas and D'Alembert.

Dubois d'Amiens, for instance, presented no éloges during the last decade of his tenure as permanent secretary (1847–73) as a result of the controversies he had previously stirred up. He was also one of the few permanent secretaries of the Academy of Medicine who was not himself the subject of a full éloge. Louis's difficulties are discussed below.

d'Azyr Vicq , “Éloges historiques: Considérations générales”, in de la Sarthe Moreau (ed.), Oeuvres de Vicq d'Azyr (6 vols, 1805), i, 1. (The pagination begins anew after Moreau's introduction).

On Pariset's life and career see Sussman George D. , “Étienne Pariset: A medical career in government under the Restoration”, in Journal of the history of medicine , xxvi (1971), 52–74; Busquet Paul , “Pariset”, in Biographies médicales , i (1927–28), 229–45; d'Amiens F. Dubois , “Éloge de Pariset”, in Pariset E. , Membres de l'Académie Royal de Médecine (2 vols, 1850), i, pp. ix–20.

I am not, in this paper, making the claim that Pariset was representative in all respects of the medical élite. Despite his evident idiosyncracies, however, he spoke in the name of France's most prestigious medical institution and used themes widespread in the medical eulogies of the period.

Louis A. , Éloges lus dans les séances publiques de l'Académie de Chirurgie, 1750–1792 , ed. by d'Amiens F. Dubois (1859). I am grateful to Toby Gelfand for making available to me his microfilm copy of this book. On Louis's life and work see Sue P. , “Éloge de Louis”, ibid., 416–49.

Oeuvres de Vicq d'Azyr. These éloges were first published in the Mémoires de la Société Royal de Médecine. For his biography see de la Sarthe Moreau , “De la vie et des ouvrages de Vicq d'Azyr”, Oeuvres de Vicq d'Azyr, i, 1–88.

Cuvier Georges , Recueil des éloges historiques lus dans les séances publiques de l'Institut Royale de France (3 vols, Strasburg, 1819–27). On his éloges see Outram Dorinda , “The Éloges of Georges Cuvier” (ref. 3), and on his career, Georges Cuvier: Vocation, science and authority in post-revolutionary France (Manchester, 1984).

See Garrison James D. , Dryden and the tradition of the panegyric (Berkeley, 1975) especially ch. 2, and Hardison O. B. Jr , The enduring monument: A study of the idea of praise in Renaissance literary theory and practice (Chapel Hill, 1962). Also see O'Malley John W. , Praise and blame in Renaisssance Rome (Durham, W.C., 1979).

Roche , “Talents, raison et sacrifice” (ref. 3), 870.

Éloges de Louis, 233.

Sue , ibid., 416–17.

Oeuvres de Vicq d'Azyr , iii, 140–1 (Navier). Also see Éloges de Louis, 63.

Oeuvres de Vicq d'Azyr, ii, 305.

Éloges de Louis, 233.

Oeuvres de Vicq d'Azyr , iii, 141 (Navier); and ibid., 381 (Buttet).

Oeuvres de Vicq d'Azyr, ii, 306.

Oeuvres de Vicq d'Azyr, iii, 368.

Ibid ., 32. d'Azyr Vicq , in Oeuvres de Vicq d'Azyr, ii, 180 used almost the exact same language to describe de Nobleville (“La sagesse et l'exactitude de son régime”).

Éloges de Louis (Malaval), 41. Also see p. 70 ( Roeder ); 214 ( Morand ).

ibid., 33 (Bassuel).

ibid., 140 (Lecat).

Oeuvres de Vicq d'Azyr, iii, 65.

Oeuvres de Vicq d'Azyr, i, 276. In this citation and those that follow I have rendered several examples of archaic eighteenth century spelling into standard nineteenth century spelling.

Oeuvres de Vicq d'Azyr, iii, 136.

Oeuvres de Vicq d'Azyr, ii, 348.

ibid., 446 (le Roy).

Even in the eighteenth century, however, medical éloges may not have been typical of academic éloges generally because of their concern to promote good health. The éloges of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres describe men martyrized by a single-minded devotion to literature. See Duranton H. , “L'Académicien au miroir”, L'Histoire au dix-huitième siècle (Aix-en-Provence, 1975), 449–78.

For instance in the éloges of Petit, Lecat, David.

Oeuvres de Vicq d'Azyr, i, 270–1.

Parisian doctors of the late eighteenth century were predominantly from medical famines. See Maille-Virole C. , “La naissance d'un personnage: Le médecin parisien à la fin de l'ancien régime” in Goubert J.-P. (ed.), La médicalisation de la société française 1770–1830 (Waterloo, Ont., 1982).

Oeuvres de Vicq d'Azyr, ii, 346, note 1.

Oeuvres de Vicq d'Azyr, iii, 30.

ibid., 20.

Éloges de Louis, 263.

Oeuvres de Vicq d'Azyr, iii, 168.

Oeuvres de Vicq d'Azyr , ii, 444. Also see his remarks on Lieutaud , Oeuvres de Vicq d'Azyr, iii, 15.

Bonnet , “Naissance du Panthéon” (ref. 2), 51–52; Ozouf , “Le Panthéon” (ref. 2), 142.

In the Academy of Medicine approximately one-quarter of all academicians received éloges. In the Academy of Science the figure was about 40 per cent (éloges and notices combined).

Along with other institutions, the Academy of Medicine made a practice of sending to the funerals of deceased members representatives who presented short eulogies. Owing to members' demands, the tradition arose of rereading these eulogies at regular meetings of the Academy and then publishing them in the Academy's Bulletin. Genuine éloges appeared in the Academy's other publication, the Mémoires, along with the more weighty scientific papers. Since both éloges and funeral orations project the same vision of the medical élite, I shall not distinguish between them in this paper.

Cuvier , Recueil des éloges (ref. 11), ii, 5.

ibid., 269–70.

Pariset , Membres de l'ARM (ref. 7), ii, 572.

ibid., ii, 590.

Sussman , “Pariset” (ref. 7), 52–74.

Among the Academy's eulogists who made use of this theme in funeral orations were Mérat in Bulletin de l'ARM, ii (1838), 399–401 and ibid ., iii (1838), 301–4; Joly in ibid ., xi (1846), 505; Bousquet in Mémoires de l'ARM , xi (1845), ii.

Le rouge et le noir and Illusions perdues are well known. Less enduring are novels like Balzac's Jean Louis (1822) and Masson's Michel Le grain de sable (1832) which also prominently feature this motif. There is to my knowledge no treatment of this theme in French literature. For a largely French view of this theme in American literature and thought see From rags to riches: Le myth du self-made man, Actes du Groupe de Recherches et d'Études Nord-Américaines, 2–4 mars 1984 (Aix-en-Provence, 1984).

For an example see Weisz George , “The politics of medical professionalization in France, 1845–1848”, Journal of social history, xii (1978), 1–30. On the importance of mobility in bourgeois thought see Daumard Adeline , “Caractères de la société bourgeoise”, in Braudel F. and Labrousse C.E. (eds), Histoire économique et sociale de la France, iii (1976), 840–1.

This point is made in many studies of eighteenth century French society. See for instance Léon R. , “Les nouvelles élites”, ibid., ii (1970), 634–40.

The social and political power of the nobility was not of course displaced overnight by that of the bourgeoisie. Among the many works which deal with this complex shift see Meyer Arno J. , The persistence of the Old Regime: Europe to the Great War (New York, 1981); Daumard , “Charactères de la société bourgeoisie” (ref. 51); Tudesq A.-J. , “Les survivances de l'ancien régime: La noblesse dans la société française de la première moitié du xixe siècle”, in Roche Denis (ed.), Ordres et classes (1973), 199–214.

Of the 110 original members of the Academy of Medicine appointed in 1820–21, 17 had been ennobled. See Weisz George , “The medical élite in France in the early 19th century”, Minerva, xxv (1987), 150–70.

Mérat , Bulletin de l'ARM, iii (1839), 302.

Pariset , Membres de l'ARM (ref. 7), ii, 603. Among other éloges with this theme are those of Chaussier , ibid ., ii, 47; Vauquelin , ibid., i, 319.

Bozzi José , Balzac et les médecins dans la comédie humaine (1932).

It is striking in this respect that an impressionistic survey I undertook of eulogies in the Annales des Mines during Pariset's tenure did not find a single instance of this theme applied to the state corps of mining engineers. Aside from the fact that members of this corps undoubtedly came from more affluent backgrounds than did doctors, advancement does not appear to have been perceived as a change of professional status as it was for doctors. The essential status of these engineers was secured when they graduated from the École des Mines. Subsequent promotions followed naturally.

According to Paul , Science and immortality (ref. 3), 59, the éloges of the Academy of Sciences, in contrast, tended in the eighteenth century to emphasize the need to defy paternal opposition in order to undertake a career in science. A similar theme in Cuvier's éloges is discussed in Outram Dorinda , “Before objectivity: Women, wives and cultural reproduction in 19th-century French science”, in Abir-Am P. and Outram D. (eds), Uneasy careers and intimate lives: Women in science, 1789–1968 (New Brunswick, N.J., 1987). Similarly , the éloges of the Académie des Inscriptions et des Belles-Lettres emphasize vocations for literature forced to overcome a variety of obstacles before they become careers. Duranton , “L'Académicien au miroir” (ref. 31).

Pariset , Membres de l'ARM, ii, 106.

ibid., i, 95.

ibid., i, 100.

ibid., ii, 428–9.

On this subject see the early chapters of Seigel Jerrold , Bohemian Paris: Culture, politics and the boundaries of bourgeois life (New York, 1986) and of Brown Marilyn R. , Gypsies and other Bohemians: The myth of the artist in nineteenth-century France (Ann Arbor, 1985).

Jolly in Bulletin de l'ARM, xi (1846), 507.

ibid., i (1837), 775.

Pariset , Membres de l'ARM, i, 291.

See especially the éloge of Larrey , ibid., ii, 493.

Funeral oration for Double , Bulletin de l'ARM , vii (1842), 883. The emphasis on industriousness is a characteristic of bourgeois society in general during this period. See Sewell William H. , Work and revolution in France: The language of labour from the old regime to 1848 (Cambridge, 1980).

See for instance the funeral orations for Robiquet , Bulletin de l'ARM , v (1840), 196; Double , ibid ., vii (1842), 883; Petit , ibid., v (1840), 157.

See for instance the funeral oration for Breschet , Bulletin de l'ARM, x (1845), 682–3.

Pariset , Membres de l'ARM, i, 330.

ibid., i, 277.

Bulletin de l'ARM , i (1837), 857–8. Also see ibid ., xi (1846), 508 and Mémoires de l'ARM , xi (1845), 19.

Pariset , Membres de l'ARM , i, 167, 199 (Berthollet); Bulletin de l'ARM, ii (1838), 646–7 (Laurent).

Pariset , Membres de l'ARM, ii, 568.

ibid., 367.

ibid., 419.

ibid., 35.

Pariset said of the young Cuvier , “il n'était pas riche: Mais, comme Alexandre, il avait l'espérance, et désormais la fortune ne pouvait manquer à son savoir…” (Membres de l'ARM, i, 362; emphasis mine).

For examples see Louis's éloges of Petit, Lecat, Haller, Fleurant, and Vicq d'Azyr's éloges of Maret, Haller, Navier, Dubourg. For examples in the éloges of the Academy of Sciences see Paul , Science and immortality (ref. 3), 95.

Pariset , Membres de l'ARM, i, 246–7.

ibid., 276.

Éloges de Louis (ref. 9), 242.

Oeuvres de Vicq d'Azyr, iii, 26.

Cuvier , Recueil des éloges (ref. 11), iii, 3. For more on this theme see Outram , “The language of natural power” (ref. 3).

Pariset , Membres de l'ARM , i, 159, where Cadet de Gassicourt is criticized for too-radical political views, and ibid., ii, 200, which condemns Desgenettes's youthful involvement in a secret student society.

Cuvier , Recueil des éloges, iii, 376.

Pariset , Membres de l'ARM, ii, 517.

Bulletin de l'ARM, xi (1846), 509.

ibid., i (1837), 548.

Similar cases are cited, ibid ., i (1837), 386 (Desgenettes); Pariset , Membres de l'ARM , i, 331 (Vauquelin); and, by other eulogists, in Bulletin de l'ARM, xi (1846), 509 (de Lens).

One of two paintings representing modern medicine which the Academy commissioned in 1848 in order to decorate its assembly room had for its subject Larrey operating on the battlefield.

On scientists' views of this period, see Outram Dorinda , “The ordeal of vocation: The Paris Academy of Sciences and the Terror, 1793–95”, History of science, xxi (1983), 251–73.

Bulletin de l'ARM, i (1837), 858.

Bulletin de l'ARM , ii (1838), 323 (Louyer-Villermay); Pariset , Membres de l'ARM, i, p. 255 (Pinel); p. 308 (Percy), p. 328 (Vauquelin).

ibid., i, 277.

Ibid ., i, 202–3. Cuvier told the same story in his éloge of Berthollet in the Academy of Sciences.

ibid., i, 137.

Bulletin de l'ARM, vi (1840–41), 329–30.

Pariset , Membres de l'ARM, ii, 427.

Bulletin de l'ARM, x (1845), 684.

Pariset , Membres de l'ARM, ii, 519.

ibid., 568.

During this period, this plot was invoked just once in the Academy of Medicine, in Dubois d'Amiens éloge of Chervin. Mémoires de l'ARM, xii (1846), pp. xxxvii–lix.