Paris as It Was and as It Is Part 70

"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 a.s.sailed, 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 amus.e.m.e.nt. 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 grat.i.tude 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 Gevres_.

"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 INSt.i.tUTIONS;

The civil hospitals in Paris now form two distinct cla.s.ses. 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

HoTEL-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 _Hotel-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 s.e.xes, 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 a.s.sertions made in these publications. A commission was appointed; but as the revenues of the _Hotel-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 princ.i.p.al object, reported as follows: "We first compared the _Hotel-Dieu_ and the _Hopital de la Charite_ relative to their mortality. In 52 years, the _Hotel-Dieu_, out of 1,108,741 patients lost 244,720, which is one out of four and a half. _La Charite_, where but one dies out of seven and a half, would have lost only 168,700, whence results the frightful picture that the _Hotel-Dieu_, in 52 years, has s.n.a.t.c.hed from France 99,044 persons, whose lives would have been saved, had the _Hotel-Dieu_ been as s.p.a.cious, in proportion, as _La Charite_.

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 _Salpetriere_. Nor are any females longer received into the _Hotel-Dieu_ to lie-in; an hospital having been established for the reception of pregnant women. At the _Hotel-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 s.e.xes, 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 _Barriere de Sevres_. Two inst.i.tutions have been formed for the aged, infirm and indigent, who pay, on entrance, a moderate sum. One of these charities is without the _Barriere d'Enfer_; the other, in the _Faubourg St. Martin_. In the same _faubourg_, a _Maison de Sante_ 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 inst.i.tutions 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 Pitie_, 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 inst.i.tution for female orphans has been established in the _Faubourg St. Antoine_; for, here, the two s.e.xes are not at present received into the same house, whether hospital or other charitable inst.i.tution. In consequence of which, Paris now contains two receptacles for _Incurables_, in lieu of the one which formerly existed.

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

HOSPICE DE LA MATERNITe.

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 a.s.sembled 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 SALPeTRIeRE.

It is no longer used as a house of correction for dissolute women.

Prost.i.tutes, 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 _Bicetre, but to the _ci-devant_ monastery of the Capucins, in the _Rue Caumartin_.

At present, the _Salpetriere 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 Salpetriere 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

BICeTRE.

This place has now the same destination for men that the Salpetriere 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 inst.i.tutions, 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 princ.i.p.al one, that is, in the