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Paris As It Was and As It Is

F >> Francis W. Blagdon >> Paris As It Was and As It Is




"When a very flat, very atrocious, and very calumniating libel
appears under a fellow's coat, 'tis a contest who shall have it
first. People pay an exorbitant price for it; the hawker who cannot
read, and who wishes only to get bread for his poor family, is
apprehended, and sent to prison, where he shifts for himself as well
as he can.

"The more the libel is prohibited, the more eager we are for it. When
we have read it, and we see that nothing compensates for its mean
temerity, we are ashamed to have sought after it. We scarcely dare
say, _we have read it_: 'tis the scum of low literature, and what is
there without its scum?

"Contempt would be the surest weapon against those miserable
productions which are equally destitute of truth and talent.

"When will men in power know how to disdain equally the interested
encomiums of intriguing flatterers and the satires produced by
hunger?

"Besides, those who sit in the first boxes must always expect some
shafts levelled at them by those who are in the pit; this becomes
almost inevitable. They must needs pay for their more commodious
place: at least we attribute to those who rule over us more
enjoyments: they have some which they will avow, solely with a view
to raise themselves above the multitude. The human heart is naturally
envious. Let men in power then forgive or dissemble seasonably:
satire will fall to the ground; it is by shewing themselves
impassible, that they will disarm ardent malignity.

"Nevertheless, there is a kind of odious libel, which, having every
characteristic of calumny, ought to be repressed. This is commonly
nothing more than the fruit of anonymous and envenomed revenge: for
what are the secret intrigues of courts to any man of letters? He
will know time enough that which will suit the pen of history.

"A libeller should be punished, as every thing violent ought to be.
But the parties interested should abstain from pronouncing; for where
then would be the proportion between the punishment and the crime?

"I apply not the name of libels to those atrocious and gratuitous
accusations against the private life of persons in power or
individuals unconnected with the government. Such injurious and
unmeaning shafts are an attack on honour: their authors should be
punished.

"The police detected and apprehended one of its inspectors, who,
being charged to discover those libels, proposed the composition of
similar ones to some half-starved authors. After having laid for them
this infernal snare for the gain of a little money, he informed
against them, and sold them to the government.

"These miscreants, blinded by the eager thirst of a little gold,
divert themselves with the uneasiness of the government, and the more
they see it in the trances of apprehension, the more they delight in
magnifying the danger, and doubling its alarms.

"Liberty has rendered the English government insensible to libels.
Disdain is certain, before the work is commenced. If the satire is
ingenious, people laugh at it, without believing it; if it is flat,
they despise it.

"Why cannot the French government partly adopt this indifference? A
contempt, more marked, for those vile and unknown pens that endeavour
to wound the sensibility of pride, would disgust the readers of the
flat and lying satires after which they are so eager, only because
they imagine that the government is really offended by them.

"It is to be observed that the productions that flatter more or less
public malignity, spread in fugitive sparks a central fire, which, if
compressed, would, perhaps, produce an explosion.

"Magistrates have not yet been seen disdaining those obscure shafts,
rendering themselves invulnerable from the openness of their
proceedings, and considering that praise will be mute, as long as
criticism cannot freely raise its voice.

"Let them then punish the flattery by which they are assailed, since
they are so much afraid of the libel that always contains some good
truths: besides, the public are there to judge the detractor; and no
unjust satire ever circulated a fort-night, without being branded
with contempt.

"Ministers reciprocally deceive each other when they are attacked in
this manner; the one laughs at the storm which has just burst on the
other, and promotes secretly what he appears to prosecute openly and
with warmth. It would be a curious thing if one could bring to light
the good tricks which the votaries of ambition play each other in the
road to power and fortune.

"There is nothing now printed in Paris, in the line of politics and
history, but satires and falsehoods. Foreigners look down with pity
on every thing that emanates from the capital on these matters. Other
subjects begin to feel the consequences of this, because the
restraint laid on the mind is manifested even in books of simple
amusement. The presses of Paris are no longer to serve but for
posting-bills, and invitations to funerals and weddings. Almanacks
are already a subject too elevated, and the inquisition examines and
garbles them.

"When I see a book," says MERCIER, "sanctioned by the government, I
would lay a wager, without opening it, that this book contains
political falsehoods. The chief magistrate may well say: 'This piece
of paper shall be worth a thousand francs;' but he cannot say: 'Let
this error become truth,' or, 'let this truth no longer be anything
but an error.' He may say it, but he can never compel men's minds to
adopt it.

"What is admirable in printing, is that these fine works, which do
honour to human genius, are not to be commanded or paid for; on the
contrary, it is the natural liberty of a generous mind, which unfolds
itself in spite of dangers, and makes a present to human nature, in
spite of tyrants. This is what renders the man of letters so
commendable, and insures to him the gratitude of future ages.

"O! worthy Englishmen! generous people, strangers to our shameful
servitude, carefully preserve among you the liberty of the press: it
is the pledge of your freedom. At this day, you alone are the
representatives of nearly all mankind; you uphold the dignity of the
name of man. The thunderbolts, which strike the pride and insolence
of arbitrary power, issue from your happy island. Human reason has
found among you an asylum whence she may instruct the world. Your
books are not subject to an inquisition; and it would require a long
comment to explain to you in what manner permission is at length
obtained for a flimsy pamphlet, which no one will read, to be exposed
for sale, and remain unsold, on the _Quai de Gévres_.

"We are so absurd and so little in comparison to you," adds MERCIER,
"that you would be at a loss to conceive the excess of our weakness
and humiliation."



LETTER LXXVIII

_Paris, March 9, 1802._

Among the national establishments in this metropolis, I know of none
that have experienced so great an amelioration, since the revolution,
as the

HOSPITALS AND OTHER CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS;

The civil hospitals in Paris now form two distinct classes. The one
comprehends the hospitals for the sick: the other, those for the
indigent. The former are devoted to the relief of suffering human
nature; the latter serve as an asylum to children, to the infirm, and
to the aged indigent. All persons who are not ill enough to be
admitted of necessity into the hospital the nearest to their
residence, are obliged to present themselves to the _Bureau Central
d'Admissions_. Here they are examined, and if there be occasion, they
receive a ticket of admission for the hospital where their particular
disorder is treated. At the head of the hospitals for the sick stands
that so long known by the appellation of the

HÔTEL-DIEU.

Formerly, nothing more horrid could be conceived than the spectacle
presented in this asylum for the afflicted. It was rather a
charnel-house than an hospital; and the name of the Creator, over
the gate, which recalled to mind the principle of all existence,
served only to decorate the entrance of the tomb of the living.

The _Hôtel-Dieu_, which is situated in the _Parvis Notre-Dame_, _Ile
du Palais_, was founded as far back as the year 660 by St. Landry,
for the reception of the sick and maimed of both sexes, without any
exception of persons. Jews, Turks, infidels, pagans, protestants, and
catholics were alike admitted, without form or recommendation. Yet,
though it contained but 1200 beds, and the number of patients very
often exceeded 5000, and, on an average, was never less than 2500,
till the year 1786, no steps were taken for enlarging the hospital,
or providing elsewhere for those who could not be conveniently
accommodated in it. The dead were removed from the wards only on
visits made at a fixed time; so that it happened not unfrequently
that a poor helpless patient was compelled to remain for hours wedged
in between two corpses. The air or the neighbourhood was contaminated
by the noisome exhalations continually arising from this abode of
pestilence, and that which was breathed within the walls of the
hospital was so contagious, as to turn a trifling complaint into a
dangerous disorder, and a simple wound into a mortification.

In 1785, the attention of the government being called to this serious
evil by various memoirs, the _Academy of Sciences_ was directed to
investigate the truth of the bold assertions made in these
publications. A commission was appointed; but as the revenues of the
_Hôtel-Dieu_ were immense, for a long time it was impossible to
obtain from the Governors any account of their application. However,
the Commissioners, directing their attention to the principal object,
reported as follows: "We first compared the _Hôtel-Dieu_ and the
_Hôpital de la Charité_ relative to their mortality. In 52 years, the
_Hôtel-Dieu_, out of 1,108,741 patients lost 244,720, which is one
out of four and a half. _La Charité_, where but one dies out of seven
and a half, would have lost only 168,700, whence results the
frightful picture that the _Hôtel-Dieu_, in 52 years, has snatched
from France 99,044 persons, whose lives would have been saved, had
the _Hôtel-Dieu_ been as spacious, in proportion, as _La Charité_.
The loss in these 52 years answers to 1906 deaths per year, and that
is nearly the tenth part of the total and annual loss of Paris. The
preservation of this hospital in the site it now occupies, and on its
present plan, therefore produces the same effect as a sort of plague
which constantly desolates the capital."

In consequence of this report, the hospital was enlarged so as to
contain about 2000 beds. Since the revolution, the improvements
introduced into the interior government of the _Hotel-Dieu_ have been
great and rapid. Each patient now has a bed to himself. Those
attacked by contagious disorders are transferred to the _Hospice St.
Louis_. Insane persons are no longer admitted; men, thus afflicted,
are sent to a special hospital established at _Charenton_; and women,
to the _Salpétrière_. Nor are any females longer received into the
_Hôtel-Dieu_ to lie-in; an hospital having been established for the
reception of pregnant women. At the _Hôtel-Dieu_, every method has
been put in practice to promote the circulation of air, and expel the
insalubrious miasmata. One of these, I think, well deserves to be
adopted in England.

In the French hospitals, one ward at least is now always kept empty.
The moment it becomes so by the removal of the patients into another,
the walls are whitewashed, and the air is purified by the fumigation
with muriatic acid, according to the plan first proposed by
GUYTON-MORVEAU. This operation is alternately performed in each
ward in succession; that which has been the longest occupied being
purified the first, and left empty till it is again wanted.

The number of hospitals in Paris has been considerably augmented.
They are all supported by the government, and not, like those in
England, by private benefactions. Sick children of both sexes, from
the time of suckling to the age of sixteen, are no longer admitted
into the different hospitals; but are received into a special
hospital, extremely well arranged, and in a fine, airy situation,
beyond the _Barrière de Sèvres_. Two institutions have been formed
for the aged, infirm and indigent, who pay, on entrance, a moderate
sum. One of these charities is without the _Barrière d'Enfer_; the
other, in the _Faubourg St. Martin_. In the same _faubourg_, a
_Maison de Santé_ is established, where the sick are treated on
paying thirty _sous_ a day.

An hospital for gratuitous vaccination, founded by the Prefect of the
department of La Seine, is now open for the continual treatment of
the cow-pox, and the distribution of the matter to all parts of
France.

In general, the charitable institutions in Paris have also undergone
very considerable improvements since the revolution; for instance,
the male orphans, admitted, to the number of two thousand, into the
asylum formerly called _La Pitié_, in the _Faubourg St. Victor_, used
to remain idle. They were employed only to follow funeral
processions. At present, they are kept at work, and instructed in
some useful trade.

A new institution for female orphans has been established in the
_Faubourg St. Antoine_; for, here, the two sexes are not at present
received into the same house, whether hospital or other charitable
institution. In consequence of which, Paris now contains two
receptacles for _Incurables_, in lieu of the one which formerly
existed.

The place of the _Hôpital des Enfans-Trouvés_ is also supplied by an
establishment, on a large scale, called the

HOSPICE DE LA MATERNITÉ.

It is divided into two branches, each of which occupies a separate
house. The one for foundlings, in the _Rue de la Bourbe_, is intended
for the reception of children abandoned by their parents. Here they
are reared, if not sent into the country to be suckled. The other, in
the _Rue d'Enfer_, which may be considered as the General Lying-in
Hospital of Paris, is destined for the reception of pregnant women.
Upwards of 1500 are here delivered every year.

As formerly, no formality is now required for the admission of
new-born infants. In the old Foundling-Hospital, the number annually
received exceeded 8000. It is not near so great at present. To those
who reflect on the ravages made among the human race by war, during
which disease sweeps off many more than are killed in battle, it is a
most interesting sight to behold fifty or sixty little foundlings
assembled in one ward, where they are carefully fed till they are
provided with wet nurses.

I must here correct a mistake into which I have been betrayed, in my
letter of the 26th of December, respecting the present destination of

LA SALPÊTRIÈRE.

It is no longer used as a house of correction for dissolute women.
Prostitutes, taken up by the police, are now carried to St. Lazare,
in the _Rue St. Denis_. Those in want of medical aid, for disorders
incident to their course of life, are not sent to _Bicêtre, but to
the _ci-devant_ monastery of the Capucins, in the _Rue Caumartin_.

At present, the _Salpêtrière forms an _hospice_ for the reception of
indigent or infirm old women, and young girls, brought up in the
Foundling-Hospital, are placed here to be instructed in needle-work
and making lace. Female idiots and mad women are also taken care of
in a particular part of this very extensive building.

The Salpêtrière was erected by Lewis XIII, and founded as an
hospital, by Lewis XIV, in 1656. The facade has a majestic
appearance. Before the revolution, this edifice was said to lodge
6000 souls, and even now, it cannot contain less than 4000. By the
_Plan of Paris_, you will see its situation, to the south-east of the
_Jardin des Plantes_.

I shall also avail myself of the opportunity of correcting another
mistake concerning

BICÊTRE.

This place has now the same destination for men that the Salpétrière
has for women. There is a particular hospital, lately established,
for male venereal patients, in the _Rue du Faubourg St. Jacques_.

* * * * *

_March 9, in continuation._

Previously to the decree of the 19th of August 1792, which suppressed
the universities and other scientific institutions, there existed in
France Faculties and Colleges of Physicians, as well as Colleges and
Commonalities of Surgeons. From one of those unaccountable
contradictions of which the revolution affords so many instances,
these were also suppressed at a time when they were becoming most
necessary for supplying the French armies with medical men. But as
soon as the fury of the revolutionary storm began to abate, the
re-establishment of Schools of Medicine was one of the first objects
that engaged attention.

Till these latter times, Medicine and Surgery, separated from each
other, mutually contended for pre-eminence. Each had its forms and
particular schools. They seemed to have divided between them
suffering human nature, instead of uniting for its relief. On both
sides, men of merit despised such useless distinctions; they felt
that the curative art ought to comprehend all the knowledge and all
the means that can conduce to its success; but these elevated ideas
were combated by narrow minds, which, not being capable of embracing
general considerations, always attach to details a great importance.
The revolution terminated these disputes, by involving both parties
in the same misfortunes.

At the time of the re-establishment of Public Instruction, the

_Schools of Health_, founded at Paris, Montpelier, and Strasburg, on
plans digested by men the most enlightened, presented a complete body
of instruction relative to every branch of the curative art. Physics
and chemistry, which form the basis of that art, were naturally
included, and nothing that could contribute to its perfection, in the
present state of the sciences, was forgotten. The plan of instruction
is fundamentally the same in all these schools; but is more extensive
in the principal one, that is, in the

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE OF PARIS.

This very striking monument of modern architecture, situated in the
_Faubourg St. Germain_, owes its erection to the partiality which
Lewis XV entertained for the art of surgery. That monarch preferred
it to every science; he was fond of conversing on it, and took such
an interest in it, that, in order to promote its improvement, he
built this handsome edifice for the _ci-devant Académie et Écoles de
Chirurgie_. The architect was GONDOUIN.

The façade, extending nearly two hundred feet, presents a peristyle
of the Ionic order. The interior distribution of this building
corresponds with the elegance of its exterior. It contains a valuable
library, a cabinet of anatomical preparations (among which is a
skeleton that presents a rare instance of a general _anchilosis_) and
imitations in wax, a chemical laboratory, a vast collection of
chirurgical and philosophical instruments, and a magnificent
amphitheatre, the first stone of which was laid by Lewis XVI in
December 1774. This lecture-room will conveniently hold twelve
hundred persons, and its form and arrangement are such, that a pupil
seated the farthest from the subject under dissection, can see all
the demonstrations of the Professor as well as if placed near the
marble table.

In one wing of the building is an _Hospice de Perfectionnement_,
formerly instituted for the reception of rare chirurgical cases only;
but into which other patients, labouring under internal disorders of
an extraordinary nature, are now likewise admitted.

To this school are attached from twenty to thirty Professors, who
lecture on anatomy and physiology; medical chemistry and pharmacy;
medical physics; pathology, internal and external; natural history,
as connected with medicine, and botany; operative medicine; external
and internal clinical cases, and the modern improvements in treating
them; midwifery, and all disorders incident to women; the physical
education of children; the history of medicine, and its legitimate
practice; the doctrine of Hippocrates, and history of rare cases;
medical bibliography, and the demonstration of the use of drugs and
chirurgical instruments. There are also a chief anatomist, a painter,
and a modeller in wax. The lectures are open to the public as well as
to the students, who are said to exceed a thousand. Besides this part
of instruction, the pupils practise anatomical, chirurgical, and
chemical operations. To the number of one hundred and twenty, they
form a practical school, divided into three classes, and are
successively distributed into three of the clinical hospitals in
Paris. At an annual competition, prizes are awarded to the greatest
proficients.

Although this school is so numerously attended, and has produced
several skilful professors, celebrated anatomists, and a multitude of
distinguished pupils, yet it appears that, since there has been no
regular admission for physicians and surgeons, the most complete
anarchy has prevailed in the medical line. The towns and villages in
France are overrun by quacks, who deal out poison and death with an
audacity which the existing laws are unable to check. Under the title
of _Officiers de Santé_, they impose on the credulity of the public,
in the most dangerous manner, by the distribution of nostrums for
every disorder. To put a stop to this alarming evil, it is in
contemplation to promulgate a law, enacting that no one shall in
future practise in France as a physician or surgeon, without having
been examined and received into one of the six Special Schools of
Medicine, or as an officer of health, without having studied a
certain number of years, walked the hospitals, and also passed a
regular examination.[1]

At the medical school of Paris are held the meetings of the

SOCIETY OF MEDICINE.

It was instituted for the purpose of continuing the labours of the
_ci-devant_ Royal Society of Medicine and the old Academy of Surgery.
With this view, it is charged to keep up a correspondence, not only
with the medical men resident within the limits of the Republic, but
also with those of foreign countries, respecting every object that
can tend to the progress of the art of healing.

* * * * *

As far back as the year 1777, there existed in Paris a college of
Pharmacy. The apothecaries, composing this college, had formed, at
their own expense, an establishment for instruction relative to the
curative art, in their laboratory and garden in the _Rue de
l'Arbalêtre_. Since the revolution, the acknowledged utility of this
institution has caused it to be maintained under the title of the

GRATUITOUS SCHOOL OF PHARMACY.

Here are delivered _gratis_, by two professors in each department,
public lectures on pharmaceutic chemistry, pharmaceutic natural
history, and botany. When the courses are finished, prizes are
annually distributed to the pupils who distinguish themselves most by
their talents and knowledge.

In the year 1796, the apothecaries of Paris, animated by a desire to
render this establishment still more useful, formed themselves into a
society, by the name of the

FREE SOCIETY OF APOTHECARIES.

Its object is to contribute to the progress of the arts and sciences,
particularly pharmacy, chemistry, botany, and natural history. This
society admits, as free and corresponding associates, _savans_ of all
the other departments of France and of foreign countries, who
cultivate those sciences and others analogous to them. Some of the
most enlightened men in France are to be found among its members.

The advantageous changes made in the teaching of medicine, since the
revolution, appear to consist chiefly in the establishment of
clinical lectures. The teaching of the sciences, accessory to
medicine, partakes more or less advantageously of the great progress
made in that of chemistry. It seems that, in general, the students in
medicine grant but a very limited confidence to accredited opinions,
and that they recur to observation and experience much more than they
did formerly. As for the changes which have occurred in the practice
of medicine, I think it would be no easy matter to appreciate them
with any degree of exactness. Besides, sufficient time has not yet
elapsed since the establishment of the new mode of teaching, for them
to assume a marked complexion. It is, however, to be observed that,
by the death of the celebrated DÉSAULT, Surgery has sustained a loss
which is not yet repaired, nor will be perhaps for ages.

[Footnote 1: A law to this effect is now made.]



LETTER LXXIX.

_Paris, March 12, 1802._

From the account I have given you of the Public Schools here, you
will have perceived that, since the revolution, nothing has been
neglected which could contribute to the mental improvement of the
male part of the rising generation. But as some parents are averse to
sending their children to these National Schools, there are now
established in Paris a great number of

PRIVATE SEMINARIES FOR YOUTH OF BOTH SEXES.

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