JEAN PAUL MARAT THE PHYSICIAN AS REVOLUTIONIST By E. P. SCARLETT, M.D.

IOWA CITY

“Across these scenes I could follow One of the most notable of this Marat that was never himself, and that group is the figure of Jean Paul Marat, carried a mad torch without sequel, the physician who achieved immortal- but just avoiding catastrophe.”—Belloc’s ity as one of the leading spirits of the “Robespierre—A Study.” French Revolution. Marat was one of “Behaviour is the garment of the the trio—Robespierre, Danton and mind.”—Bacon. Marat, who were the dictators during THE restless probing pen of the most stormy years of that period. the modern biographer with Few men in history have been as very few exceptions has left savagely attacked and yet it would untouched the figures of seem as if history had yet not made up medical history. The annals of med- her mind about this man. The final icine are for the most part the record estimate has still to be written. In the of sober achievements by men who put great majority of the records Marat is their full energy into their professional considered as a blood-thirsty monster careers. Their names constitute the or at least as a sinister figure or an line of the great tradition with which unbalanced fanatic. It happens that after all medical history, being practically none of his contemporaries extremely careless about the lesser who left memoirs were favorably dis- fry, has contented itself. These great posed towards him. Most of the his- names have been singularly out of torians of the Revolution have treat- place in the biography of our time ed him harshly; political biography with its small talk, anecdotes and has set him up as a vehement apostle scandal. There has been some explor- of the doctrine of government by ing of the more quiet back-waters, murder; the more imaginative his- notably in such works as Dr. John torical writers such as Carlyle have Brown’s essays and Osier’s sketch found him a ready subject as the mad “An Alabama Student.” But it seems villain of the piece. In all, his character inevitable that medical biography has been drawn in such lurid lines should move within conventional that one instinctively suspects that limits, much as one may regret the it has been exaggerated. “life and letters” type of record It is further too facile an explana- and even cry out like the old scribe tion to dismiss Marat as insane. He that much of it “dulleth the wits, lacked the intellectuality of Robes- rankleth flesh and palleth oft fresh pierre or Danton and cannot for a bloods.” For the unusual, one must moment be considered with either. turn to the fringes of medical history There were totally lacking in him the where there are to be found many qualities of a great revolutionary physicians who have won fame in leader. All his violence and suspicions other fields than medicine. are the mark of mediocrity and fanaticism. But if he were merely a of men without distinction to merit of psychopathic case and nothing more perpetuity.” he would not have achieved the Any sketch of Marat’s life must influence that he did in his own time assume the limitations inevitable in nor have continued to hold the a brief study and can profess to be position that he does in history. only an impression of a figure that In a measure he presents the same must always interest the student of problem as Joan of Arc; are we medical history. In view of what has justified in assuming that the leading already been suggested it can be figure of a moving episode in history little more, to use Sir Clifford Allbutt’s was insane? It is a problem that modern happy phrase, than an excursion “in psychology with its facile jargon does the byways of the fallible.” not seem capable of coping with. It would seem the part of wisdom His Earl y Years and Care er as Physic ian therefore to hold the middle course An accurate account of Marat’s in a consideration of a man about early life, indeed of his whole career whom the fires of controversy have prior to the Revolution, taxes even raged. Marat is not the glorified the most restrained and rigorous his- figure of the early Revolutionist histo- torical judgment. Many of the facts rians nor on the other hand quite “the are drawn from Marat’s own state- villain and sectary of hell” (to ments which are colored by his use Sir Thomas Browne’s phrase) habit of exaggeration and must be that the majority would have us heavily discounted. Then legends grew believe. His life was played out against up about him, as has happened with a complex background. Unlike most many unusual characters of history, lives it is too dramatic to be dull. and sober citizens in after years, His early career is obscure, but he recognizing in the dreaded Marat of does come into clearer view as a the Paris mob the more conventional respected member of society with an figure of earlier times allowed their extensive medical practice and with imaginations to recreate a character the urge to write scientific and more in keeping with his later career. particularly political treatises. At the Marat was born in 1743 in the outbreak of the Revolution he was Swiss Canton of Neuchâtel. The fam- forty-five and had it not been for ily name was written as Mara. His that event he would never have been parents were poor, his father being a heard of. The Revolution achieved printer and designer. The boy was for him, a relatively obscure doctor self-supporting and received his educa- and dabbler in politics and, it must be tion by dint of hard work. He studied admitted, in certain phases the medical medicine at the University of Bor- quack and sharper, a lasting place in deaux and for a time at least attended our history. The conscientious and bril- schools in Toulouse, Paris and liant physicians of his day, who would London. About 1765 at the age of not admit him to their Academy of twenty-two he began the practice Sciences, have disappeared. As Sir of medicine in Church Street in the Thomas Browne justly remarks: “The Soho district of London. The first iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth specific record which we have of her poppy, and deals with the memory him is two years later. Old Slaughter’s Cofi'ee House stood at the upper and proposed the existence of a nervous end of St. Martin’s Lane, a street fluid as the true solution. Two years tenanted by English and foreign art- later he published anonymously and ists for whom “Slaughter’s” was a in English his first political book, social center. Two artists speak of “Chains of Slavery.” It consisted of Doctor Marat who lived near by. sixty-five chapters in which “the He apparently treated one for gonor- dark objects, crafty proceedings, se- rhea. They note that he was interested cret plots, fatal policy and deceitful in politics, a follower of John Wilkes arts” of “royal despots and tyrant and sympathetic with all opposition princes” are set forth. Its purpose to government. From 1770 to 1772 was “to secure the triumph of liberty one record states that he practiced in England.” He says that in writing human and veterinary medicine in this book he devoured thirty volumes, Newcastle-on-Tyne. An observer in worked twenty-one hours a day for Newcastle writes: “It was difficult for three months, kept going by drinking me to conceive the sallow man with excessive quantities of coffee, that pockpitted countenance, black flat immediately on completion of the hair, blood shot eyes and spasmod- book he fell ill, became stuporous, ically twitching mouth—the incar- lost all power of memory, and re- nation of the repulsive—so highly covered in thirteen days “by the aid regarded.” This account of a residence of music and repose.” The book is in Newcastle is not strongly supported the production of the unbalanced by fact, and in the observation political fanatic but it really antedated quoted which was written after the the Chartist movement for reform in Revolution there is an example of England. the custom already noted to view On the thirtieth of June, 1775 Marat; as he was then regarded by (Marat was now thirty-five) he was nearly all Englishmen, as the devil granted an honorary degree of m.d . incarnate. by St. Andrews University. The fact At any rate in these early days is that St. Andrews at this time was Marat was a responsible member of desperately short of funds and an society, with a medical practice of honorary degree was to be obtained some size and well thought of by by the payment of ten guineas with- his fellow citizens. He reflected the out examination on the recommenda- catholicity of interests characteristic tion of two physicians. He returned of the men of his time, was a voracious to practice in Soho, London. His reader, and having come under the name does not appear in any medical influence of Voltaire and Montesquieu or social directory of the time. No was particularly interested in political one could practice in London or seven thought and in the growing agitation miles around it without the license for political and social reform. About of the Bishop of London or the Dean this time he began to write and in a of St. Paul’s made on the recommen- short period published his first work, dation of four “doctors in physic” “An Essay on the Human Soul,” or other “experts in surgery.” There in which he declared that physiology is no record of Marat obtaining alone could solve the problems of such a license. He published about the connection between soul and body this time two medical tracts entitled “Singular Disease of the Eyes” and and moreover by his writings was re- “An Essay on Gleets.” These pam- ceived by the scientific circles of the phlets were republished in 1891 by city. A contemporary gives the fol- Bailey, the librarian of the Royal lowing account of Marat’s introduc- College of Surgeons of England. tion into the household of the Comte, Marat left England in 1777 and an account colorful though possibly returned to Paris. He had probably overdrawn : enjoyed a fair practice in London On the 24th of June, 1777, the gate- and was a man of some social position. keeper of the Comte’s magnificant man- One post-Revolutionary legend would sion witnessed the arrival of a curious have it that he taught French for a personage. Although only five feet tall, time at an academy in the Midlands he carried his head proudly. It was broad of England under the assumed name and bony, thin-lipped, brown-skinned. of Monsieur Le Maitre. Another more His brilliant eyes, full of fire, were not sensational story states that while on the same horizontal line because one acting as an instructor in drawing at of his cheekbones was higher than the Oxford he broke into the Ashmolean other. To sum up, a pitiful looking indi- vidual whose aspect inspired simultan- Museum and stole a group of valuable eously a sort of repugnance, disgust and medals and chains, later escaping to contempt. London and finally to Dublin where he The gatekeeper laughed. was arrested and returned to Oxford. “And what name shall I have the The story further relates that he was honour of sending in to Monseigneur?” tried and sentenced to five years’ The little man rose on tiptoe, drew hard labor on the docks at Woolwich up his slender figure, and said with his and after serving six months of this hand on his sword hilt, time escaped to France. There is no “Announce the Chevalier de Marat. I adequate basis for these stories which am the new Doctor of Monseigneur’s are little more than interesting legends body-guard.” intent upon making Marat act as it Marat’s practice grew and within were in character as a melodramatic three or four years he had gradually figure even during these peaceful worked his way up among the wealthy years in England. bourgeoisie of the city. He particularly On his return to Paris he conducted acquired a reputation as a specialist in an independent practice for several diseases of the chest and of the eye. months but very shortly after entered His success in the case of the Marquise the household of the Comte d’Artois de L’ Aubespierre brought him tem- as physician of the body guard. It is porary fame. This woman suffered said that his duties entailed some from pulmonary tuberculosis but also veterinary work but this fact is not was a confirmed neurotic individual. well substantiated. Carlyle in his Marat was able to improve her condi- treatment of Marat consistently mag- tion greatly and probably on the nifies this point and treats him strength of this case he put forward practically as an uneducated horse- a medicine to cure tuberculosis. In leech. Such a view is manifestly 1778 this remedy was analyzed by absurd, as Marat in his office as phy- Abbé Teissier, doctor regent of the sician under Comte d’Artois’s pat- Faculty of Medicine of the Royal ronage acquired a wealthy clientile Medical Society and found to be little more than chalk and water. of the great Louis and the contrast His reputation as a scientist however which had existed between orders in grew, based chiefly upon various pa- the social life for generations were pers dealing with light, electricity stirring the nation. The misery of and fire. These treatises contained the common people was profound. nothing unusual or worth detailing. There is La Bruyere’s word picture He gave several demonstrations in of “certain wild animals, male and physics and on one of these occasions female, scattered over the fields, black Benjamin Franklin, whose interest livid, all burnt by the sun, bound to in such matters is so well known, the earth that they dig and work was a member of the audience. Marat with unconquerable pertinacity; they hoped as the result of his scientific have a sort of articulate voice, and work to be elected to the Academy of when they rise on their feet, they Sciences. He was always chagrined show a human face and, in fact, because this honor was denied him are men.” The gaunt spectacle which and nursed a lifelong grudge on this we call the Revolution was gradually score. Already in such incidents is coming “into pale outline.” In this to be seen the first suggestion of two year, 1788, the Notables met and traits in his character which all but advised the King and his ministers mastered the man in the later years that the Estates General which had of conflict: distrust of others’ motives not been convened for one hundred and a persecution mania. and fifty years should be called to- There is no record of Marat’s gether. The assembly of this body activities in the two or three years was decided upon, the election causing preceding the outbreak of the Revolu- a flood of pamphlets, one of the most tion. Phipson, an English writer, prominent being Marat’s. In May, recently has brought forward evidence 1789 the Estates General convened, that Marat again went to England and in procession marched to Notre where he was engaged in several Dame Cathedral for divine worship; doubtful projects and on one occasion the King, the clergy, the nobles was imprisoned. The evidence sup- and the six hundred representatives. porting such a contention is not Standing on tiptoe watching that convincing. It is probable that he procession is our physician. Carlyle continued his practice in Paris al- with all his picturesque vigor of style though latterly he left the house- tells the story thus: hold of the Comte d’Artois. But Surely also in some place not of honour, his medical and scientific interests stands or sprawls up querulous, that he must have been gradually retreating too though short, may see—one squal- into the background as the increasing idest, bleared mortal, redolent of soot social unrest claimed his attention. and horse drugs: Jean Paul Marat of The medical dabbler in politics was Neuchâtel. O Marat, Renovator of gradually being drawn into the vortex Human Science, Lecturer on Optics, O and by the year 1788 reforming zeal thou remarkablest Horse leech, once in was rapidly passing into fanaticism. D’Artois’ Stables—as thy bleared soul For in France events were moving looks forth through thy bleared, dull acrid, woestricken face, what seest it in all this? rapidly up to the Revolution. Rous- seau had been its first voice. The Marat saw the coming Revolution material misery caused by the wars and from now on his story becomes that of the Revolution. Marat the and croaks: “Alight then, and give physician is dead. up your arms.” The Hussar captain is too happy to be escorted to the Barriers, Marat th e Rev ol ut ion ist and dismissed on parole. Who the squat At the outbreak of the Revolution individual was? Men answer, It is M. Marat, author of the excellent paper, Marat was forty-five. His career up to “Avis au Peuple.” Great truly, O thou this time had been that of the man of remarkable Dogleech, is this, thy day of science; he was unprepossessing in emergence and new birth. appearance, violent in manner, egotis- tic in outlook. The forces gradually As soon as Marat attained promi- gaining momentum through the na- nence as a revolutionary leader he tion fired the political ideas which became unkempt in appearance, wore he had always cherished. By a transi- his shirt open at the neck, a sash tion as rapid as it was complete he about his head and pistols in his became the firebrand of the Paris belt; the typical “sans-culotte” of mob and one of the directing geniuses the period. At first he was favorable of the Revolution. He founded a to the King and advocated a constitu- paper in 1789, L’ Ami du Peuple, tional monarchy. He took a large and through it attacked everyone part in directing the mob which in power. His first notable attacks escorted the King from Versailles were those upon Necker, Lafayette to Paris. Through his paper he con- and Mirabeau. In these days and in tinued to preach revolution and to the stormier ones which followed he thunder against the leaders. Gradually stood alone, attached to no party. his violence and suspicion became Suspicion was present in his mind allied to a love of glory and a fixed to a pathological degree. He suspected idea that he was the only patriot whoever was in power at the moment. in France. These characteristics are If one person nursed a grudge against reflected in his writing which was another he had only to denounce grandiose but which appealed to the him to Marat, and the denounced Paris populace. Marat’s was the great- was never let alone until proved est influence of all the journalists of innocent or guilty. Probably the most the Revolution. One example of his sober judgment which may be passed style must suffice. upon him is that more than any All that a man of sense and a man of other he had within him the seed of heart could do to save his country, I violence which later was to become have done to defend mine. Alone and the Terror. without support I have fought for two He first came into prominence at whole years against the commissioners of sections, the municipal administrators, the sacking of the Bastile. Carlyle the chiefs of state, the government, the describes the circumstances thus: prince, the National Assembly itself, One poor troop of Hussars has crept, and often with success ... I have un- reconnoitering, cautiously along the masked the Parisian general, raised the Quais, as far as the Pont Neuf. “We are army and the fleet against their despotic come to join you,” said the captain; for chiefs; more than once I have compelled the crowd seemed shoreless. A large- committees to resign, to suspend or to headed, dwarfish individual, of smoke- revise their projected decrees; I have bleared aspect, shambles forward, open- struggled against oppressors of every ing his blue lips, for there is sense in him, kind; I have rescued a hundred thousand victims from judicial tyranny. More in cruel sport, knead thee out of her than once I have made the tyrant on leavings, and miscellaneous waste clay; his throne turn pale, and dismiss his and fling thee forth, a distraction into frightful agents . . . Exposed to their this distracted Eighteenth Century. Work wrath I have been pursued again and is appointed thee there which thou shalt again by the ministers and the municipal do. The Three Hundred have summoned administrators. Twenty military expedi- and again will summon Marat; but always tions directed against me, and a whole he croaks forth answer sufficient; always army mobilized to tear me away from the he will defy them or elude them; and people have only increased my audacity. suffer no gag. A price has been put on my head: five cruel spies put on my tracks, and two Marat was thus the free-lance agita- thousand assassins paid to slay me, have tor and journalist until he was elected not for an instant succeeded in making to the Assembly in 1792. In this me betray my duty . . . This kind of body he was unpopular; no one would life, the mere recital of which freezes sit beside him. Danton said of him: the most callous heart, I have led for “ I say frankly that I have had experi- eighteen long months without one mo- ence with his temper. He is not only ment complaining, without once asking for rest or recreation, without heeding volcanic and bitter but unsociable.” the loss of my health, of my estate, and And yet he forced a hearing for him- without blanching at the sight of the self. Day in and day out he harangued sword always pointed at my heart. the newly elected representatives of the people and croaked, “Nous som- He was constantly being denounced mes trahis.” He insisted that two and finally following his attack upon things were needed to cleanse France: the Commune he was forced into the death of the king and the guillotin- hiding and fled to England. Danton ing of two hundred and seventy made his first public appearance in thousand aristocrats. Madame de obstructing the police in this “Affaire Pompadour had gayly exclaimed some du Marat.” After a short time the time before, “Apres nous le deluge!” political refugee returned to Paris Verily, the deluge was about to and lived like a hunted dog in the descend. Marat in a word insisted cellars and sewers of the city. He that counter revolution could be com- was attended only by the woman, bated only by a policy of terror. Simonne Evrard, whose devotion he He had long since abandoned the always inspired. They were formally hope of a constitutional monarchy. affianced in December, 1791, Marat But with all his demand for the having been acquainted with her rule of the people he really distrusted family. He took her to wife with democracy and wished to have power his own private ceremony in 1792. constituted in a committee or a The civil rite was never carried out. dictatorship. That power was to be She lived with him constantly after exercised in a ruthless fashion and that. Marat was never a libertine. it is because more than any other Carlyle says of this period: man he symbolized this policy of Poor is this man, squalid and dwells in terror that his figure is an important garrets; a man unlovely to the sense one in the history of the Revolution. outward and inward, a man forbid, and His demand for the destruction of is becoming fanatical possessed with the old aristocracy of France is de- fixed idea. Did nature, O poor Marat, as scribed by Carlyle in dramatic fashion. Two hundred and seventy thousand . . . Then the shrieks rise anew, and the aristocrat heads—that is the precisest Decree of Accusation is on the point of calculation though one would not stand passing; till the dingy People’s Friend on a few hundreds; yet we never rise as bobs aloft once more; croaks once more high as the round three hundred thou- persuasive stillness, and the Decree of sand ... A Cassandra—Marat cannot Accusation sinks. Whereupon he draws do it, with his single shrunk arm; but forth a pistol; and setting it to his head, with a few determined men it were possi- the seat of such thought and prophecy ble . . . There is no jesting in those says, “ If they had passed their accusation rheumy eyes; in that soot—bleared figure, Decree, he, the People’s Friend, would most earnest of created things; neither have blown his brains out.” A People’s indeed is there madness of the strait Friend has that faculty in him—“No waistcoat sort I power on Earth can prevent him from seeing into traitors and unmasking them War with Austria was begun in —by my superior originality of mind.” April, 1792 which Marat opposed An honorable member like this Friend as serving the purpose of the Royal- of the People few terrestrial Parliaments ists and withdrawing the leaders of have had. the people from Paris to the battle front. In December the king was He was finally impeached and sent brought to trial; on the 20tI) of before the Revolutionary Tribunal January, 1793, sentence of death was for trial, acquitted and returned to passed upon him and on the following the Convention with the people of day he was beheaded. Revolts burst Paris at his back. We read: out all over France. A reign of law- But on Wednesday afternoon, 24th lessness and blood succeeded. The of April, year 1793, what tumult as of months of the Terror began. Marat fierce jubilee is this? It is Marat returning was now supreme. He had been from the Revolutionary Tribunal . . . engaged in a bitter struggle with And so the eye of History beholds the Girondists, the conservative or Patriotism which had gloomed unutter- moderate party. At first the tide able things all week, break into loud had gone against him; the Girondists jubilee, embrace its Marat, lift him into ordered his trial before the Revolu- a chair of triumph, bear him shoulder tionary Tribunal. Carlyle again: high through the streets. Shoulder high is the injured People’s Friend, crowned Thereupon there comes, visibly step- with an oak garland amid the wavy ping up, visibly standing aloft on the sea of red night-caps, jackets, grenadier Tribune ready to speak—the Bodily bonnets and female mobcaps; far sound- Spectrum of People’s Friend Marat. ing like a sea. The injured People’s Shriek, ye Seven Hundred and Forty Friend has here reached his culminating Nine; it is verily Marat, he and not point; he too strikes the stars with his another ... “It appears” says Marat sublime head. to the shrieking assembly, “that a great The convention was purged of Gi- many persons here are enemies of mine.” “All, all”—shriek hundreds of voices; rondists, and Marat with Robespierre enough to drown the people’s Friend. and Danton ruled supreme. But Marat will not drown; he speaks He was the first of the Triumvirate and croaks explanation; croaks with to fall. Charlotte Corday, a young such reasonableness, air of sincerity that woman of twenty-four, living in Caen repentant pity smothers anger, and the and in sympathy with the Girondists shrieks subside, or even become applause. conceived it her duty to kill Marat. With a note of introduction to him right lung as well as the aorta and and a slight stock of luggage she left going into the left clavicle.” He died Caen on Tuesday, the ninth of July, instantly. It was the evening of the 1793. Arriving in Paris she purchased 13th of July, 1793, just four years a large sheath-knife in the Palais Royal. after the eve of the Bastille Day That same morning she addressed the when Marat had first become a notable following letter to Marat by post : among Patriot men. Citizen:— The death stirred the nation. Char- I have just arrived from Caen. Your lotte Corday was summarily tried love for the country makes me think and guillotined. Robespierre’s sole that you will be interested to know the comment on the event was, “ I am unhappy events in that part of the Repub- myself marked out for daggers.” The lic. I will call upon you about one o’clock. mob made a god of Marat; the whole Be so good as to receive me and grant Convention attended his funeral. His me a moment’s interview. I will show you bust was placed in the Convention how to render France a great service. Hall. The noted artist of the day, Charlotte Corday David, painted a portrait of “Marat As Esquiros says, “A perfidious inten- Assassinated,” and a worship was tion like a knife-blade was hidden rendered to the “Friend of the under the last sentence.” People.” His ashes were transferred Receiving no reply Mademoiselle to the Pantheon with pomp on Septem- Corday took a hackney coach to the ber 21 st, 1794, but with the fickleness Rue des Cordeliers No. 44 (now of popular favor cast out again by a Rue de l’Ecole de Médecine),—the decree in the following year. residence of Citizen Marat. She was So died Marat. He must be con- denied admission; the citizen was ill. sidered as a product of the explosive She returned again at seven in the atmosphere of the Revolution. His evening and insisted on admission. claim to a place in the history of Marat overhearing her plea that she the time is due to his destructive bore important news from Caen cried invective, his journalistic skill, his out from within, “Admit her.” He was amazing vigor and his unrelenting in his bath. For years he had been a attacks upon the more reactionary sufferer from what modern observers counter-revolutionary figures. In his believe to be dermatitis herpetiformis. fanatic devotion to the cause he over- The agony of the pruritus was intense stepped at least at times those inde- and for years he had no relief save when finite boundaries which we attempt in his tub. He stayed in it for hours, to assign to sanity. The furnace worked in it and was killed in it. through which he passed played upon Marat asked Charlotte her business. the worst in his character. Admittedly She gave him the names of several he was not one of the great souls Deputies at Caen whom she said were of a period which has remade the traitors. “Their heads shall fall within world. But in his fantastic mind, a fortnight,” he croaked in reply. side by side with the madness was As he took up his tablet to write, a belief, strained and warped as it Charlotte stabbed him, making a was, in great truths which somehow wound, as the autopsy record shows, led him on to his destiny. No physician “between the first and second rib, with a stranger or more dramatic traversing the upper part of the history ever lived.