Observations on the comparative state of medicine in France, England, and Germany : during a journey into these countries in the year 1835 / by Adolph Muehry ; translated from the German by Edward G. Davis.

  • Mühry, Adolf, 1810-1888.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the comparative state of medicine in France, England, and Germany : during a journey into these countries in the year 1835 / by Adolph Muehry ; translated from the German by Edward G. Davis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    department has in part supplied a great previous defect, since exercises in touching and practical illustrations are given, which formerly were entirely wanting, Maternite being accessible only to female pupils. Among medical societies the first is the Academy of Medicine, which includes in all 170 members, charges itself with the exami- nation of new discoveries and remedies, is consulted by tbe govern- ment, and holds animated discussions in its own body. This society has a public session every fortnight. There are also eight other associations; the Societe de Medecine, Athenee de Medecine, So- ciete Medicale d'Emulation, Societe Medicale du Temple, Societe de Medecine Pratique, Societe Medico-Pratique, Societe Anatomique, Societe Medico-Philanthropique. Four years' study is requisite to obtain a degree of doctor, and the student must attend the lectures in a prescribed order; this matter not being left, as in Germany, to their own choice. They take sixteen inscriptions, and pay therefor about 1100 francs. They undergo five examinations, all of them public. Three professors, in their robes of office, consisting of a black cloak with red lining, and a cap, address questions to three or four students for about fifteen minutes. Every year about three hundred doctors of me- dicine and surgery are passed. The students mostly reside in the above named Q,uartier Latin, having there their resorts for break- fast and dinner, (cafes and restaurants,)—their smoking rooms, (es- taminets,) theatres, and reading rooms, (cabinets de lecture,) where the Gazette Medicale and the Lancette Franchise, the popular me- dical journals, are always to be found. Whoever would learn far- ther how the Parisian students live in the fifth story, (au cinqui- eme,) in a chamber of which a skeleton is an essential article of furniture, how they arrange matters with a grisette to attend to their clothing and washing, and how on Sunday they resort to the Grand Chaumiere, the favourite dancing house before the Porte St. Martin, may find these particulars at length in the Book of the Hundred and One (Livre des Cent et Un). They smoke Flemish pipes, thee and thou each other, call a third person, whose name they do not know, Mr. Chose, and maintain in their own quarter, and in virtue of their numbers, a certain authority. The concours forms in France the most powerful incentive to exertion among medical men. The operation of this principle commences even with the primary and secondary schools. In the six royal colleges they take place in each class, and there is also a general concours de composition, where, in solemn assembly, in presence of the minister of public instruction, the first prize is ad- judged, the victor crowned, declared the first scholar of France, (so little account is made of the departmental schools.) and afterwards presented to the king. A concours is again necessary in order to constitute a candidate externe in a hospital; another makes him an interne; a third determines him an agrege to the faculty; a fourth a professor. The same sort of trial is sometimes necessary in order to become physician or surgeon en chef to a hospital ;