CORVISART, HIS LIFE AND WORKS* By B. BARKER BEESON, M.D. CHICAGO, ILL. 1 0 EAN NICOLAS CORVISART JHis lather became very angry at this was born February 15, 1775, in/ decision and literally kicked him out the tiny village of Dricourt, of the paternal home. Without means not far from Vouziers, then a or influence Corvisart sought refuge part of the Champagne but nowin Hotcl-Dieu, the oldest hospital of includedJ in the Ardennes Department. Paris, where in return for acting as One writer has added the suffix des an ordinary nurse he was given board, Marets to his name. At any rate lodging and most important of all, the family was an old one and could an opportunity to study medicine. By be traced back to 870 a .d . It was his vigilance, zeal and gaiety he soon ennobled in 1669, in the person of became a favorite with both the Philip de Corvisart, Lord of Fleury. physicians and the patients. Antoine Owing to strife between the magis- Petit, Louis, Bucquet, Vicq-d’Azyr, trates and the French clergy, Parlia- Desault, Desbois de Rochefort and ment had been exiled from Paris. Portal were among his teachers. Corvi- So the elder Corvisart left with his sart frequently prepared the material fellows and settled temporarily in for their demonstrations. While doing Dricourt, returning to Paris soon after so, on one occasion he suffered a slight the birth of his son. The father was wound of a finger. Infection set in possessed of considerable means most and only the skillful and devoted of which was wasted on inferior care of Desault saved him. paintings. For reasons of economy Although the youngest in his class the subject of this sketch was sent Corvisart stood first. His inaugural early to live with an uncle, the parish thesis (1782) was entitled, “Is pleth- priest at Vimille, a village adjacent ora sufficient to produce the menstrual to Bou'Iogne-sur-Mer. When thirteen evacuation?.” Three years later the years old he entered the College degree of Doctor-regent was conferred of Saint-Barbe where he proved to upon him by the Paris Faculty of be a lazy, mischievous and quarrel- Medicine and as was the custom he some pupil, showing no signs of future delivered a discourse. It dealt with greatness. Instead he devoted him- the pleasures of medical study and the self to outdoor sports. Originally in- disappointments of medical practice. tended for the bar he spent some time, Bourdois de Lamotte says that the most reluctantly, in the study of law. degree of Doctor-regent was obtained Helme tells of Corvisart’s visits to only after four years of study plus several medical clinics in Paris and of two additional years devoted largely the profound impression made upon to rigorous examinations. What was him by the eloquence of Antoine expected of the candidate was out Petit. He at once cast aside Justinian of all proportion to what he had been and his Codes and decided to enroll taught, so a great deal of self-educa- under the banner of Aesculapius. tion was essential. The new Doctor- *Read at a Joint Meeting of the Society of Medical History of Chicago and the Institute of Medicine, January 25, 1929. regent, in accordance with usage, ous of a hospital connection but tendered a banquet to his teachers and refused a place in the new Necker fellows. When the festivities were well Hospital when Madame Necker in- under way Corvisart, according to sisted that he don a wig. He had Helme, could no longer converse save meanwhile contracted close friend- in Latin. Glass in hand and to the ships with Desbois de Rochefort and astonishment of all he suddenly burst Desault as well as with Father Poten- into the adjoining room where the tian, the Superior of the Charite professors were dining, hiccoughing Hospital. On the death of Desbois Horace, belching forth Juvenal, and in 1788, Corvisart was designated abruptly ending the banquet. to succeed him as physician to that Corvisart later became adjunct to hospital. From then on his reputation the chair of anatomy and took part grew steadily so that when the medical in the courses on operative surgery, school was created in 1795, he was obstetrics and physiology. He was unanimously chosen to occupy the also appointed physician to the poor chair of medicine. Two years later of the parish of Saint-Sulpice. In Corvisart was made Professor of the midst of this busy and useful Medicine at the College de France. career he was frequently obliged to In 1799 Barthez and he were made borrow money. His chief aim, even physicians to the Government. Later when distressed, was to live in order Corvisart was personal physician to to learn and to perfect himself by Bonaparte as First Consul and with experience. Corvisart was very desir- the advent of the First Empire he became chief physician to the Em- between Corvisart and Boyer, the peror, the Empress and the Court. surgeon, in the case of a patient with Corvisart was a member of the a gastric complaint, “It is a catarrh,” Academy of Sciences (1811) and of said Boyer. “No! it is a cancer,” re- the Academy of Medicine (1820). plied Corvisart, “Observe that leaden Napoleon created him a Baron of color and emaciation.” On another the Empire as well as an Officer of occasion along with Dubois, also a the Legion of Honor and a Com- surgeon and famous as the accoucheur mander of the Order of the Reunion. who delivered the King of Rome, Owing to the demands of the court Corvisart was examining the bladder and government, Corvisart resigned of an old senator who was stone deaf; his teaching positions in 1805 and so they spoke freely. “There is a was made professor emeritus. The calculus,” exclaimed Dubois, “like customary pension was, at his request, a small nut, round and solitary.” set aside for the founding of a prize “Fine,” said Corvisart, “and how open to competition among the medi- can you consider this insignificant cal students. The prize was won, in stone as the sole cause of what we see: 1848, by Corvisart’s nephew, Lucien this loss of weight this rapid weaken- Corvisart who afterwards became ing of all the organs. Look further, physician to Napoleon in and as- you ought to find a fungous growth or sisted at the birth of the son of the an ulcer which could cause all of these latter’s wife, the ill-fated Prince symptoms and the calculus as well.” Imperial. Agreeing with this Dubois explored Lassus has emphasized Corvisart’s still more with a sound. Suddenly he critical sense, independence, powers stopped and exclaimed, “You are of observation and scepticism. He right! I find a soft fleshy growth chose his teachers particularly for which is your fungus.” their ability to impart information Upon seeing a certain portrait Corvi- to others, being especially attached sart exclaimed, “If the painter was to Desault, A. Petit, Desbois de exact the original of this portrait Rochefort and Bichat. Desbois is died of heart disease.” “And,” adds credited with doing much to make an Pariset, “he was correct.” Observa- observer of Corvisart for he held tion was termed by him the chief informal talks with his pupils in support of clinical medicine. Lassus which diagnosis and treatment were refers to Corvisart as the physician thoroughly discussed. Along with a physiognomist par excellence. On en- penchant for criticism Corvisart was tering a room and at a distance of endowed with common sense and several meters he often recognized the therefore his diagnoses which at times disorder present. His scepticism was seemed almost to be miraculous, shown by one of his favorite sayings, were really due in a large measure to ‘‘ That which we know is but little com- this combination. He was probably pared to that which we must learn.” the first to carry out and insist on Corvisart was scrupulously honest routine physical examinations, thus and never gossiped. Generous with paving the way for what is now the poor, he insisted on adequate fees customary. from the wealthy class. Even at the The story is told of a consultation zenith of his career he was often morose, melancholy and preoccupied. he excited the admiration of his He was courteous to physicians save pupils when practicing percussion at to some of the older ones whom he the bedside. termed Gothic and superannuated. Corvisart became greatly interested Marital difficulties and the death of an in percussion after reading a book on only son are said to have accounted it by the Viennese physician, Auen- for his attitude toward life in general. briigger (1760). He translated this Corvisart’s service at the Charite work into French in 1808. When it was a famous center of clinical teach- was suggested that he write his own ing during his ten years there. Those book on percussion Corvisart replied, who followed him through the wards “By doing that I would sacrifice in the forenoon, could go later to Auenbriigger to my own vanity, a the College de France and hear the thing I shall not do, for I wish to same cases discussed from the purely revive his splendid discovery.” theoretical standpoint. His genius in Corvisart realized the importance organization and imperious authority of percussion and emphasized it not resulted in a smoothly working organ- only in his practice but also in clinics ization with an almost military dis- and lectures. cipline. Dr. Reveille-Parise, then a In 1797 he translated from Latin medical student, attracted the atten- into French Max Stoll’s “Aph- tion of Corvisart one day at the orisms on the Knowledge and Cure Charite.