MEDICAL SKETCHES, 1834.

819 have heard well-informed persons allege, the inhabitants of this city are particttlarly liable to a decay of the teeth, and ROUEN. they attribute it to some deleterious quality of the water, but this cause I much doubt. There are thirtv-eight public fountains, M. J. EDWARD O’REILLY, B., Trinity and the water of those which I examined By College, Dublin, M.R.C.S.L., &c. was excellent. The number of reservoirs of pure water caused by these fountains, THE English physician who travels for at all seasons, in my mind is a great prethe purpose of increasing his knowledge ventive against the occurrence of hydroof the means by which health is to be pre- phobia in dogs; and I could wish for our served, and deviations from it are to be own sakes, as well as that of our canine that equal facilities were afforded rectified, must be struck on surveying the the cities of Great Britain.* capital of ancient Neustria, with the proThe hospitals of Rouen are very fine. The vision made at the public expense for the out-door amusements and recreations of Hotel Dieu is one of the noblest in Europe. is situated at a short distance from the all classes of the people ; and he must entertain a feeling of regret that in his own town, and contains fifteen wards, in which country the poor on festival days have no are six hundred and eleven beds. Part of is appropriated to the military, and other resort afforded to them than the souland-body destroying gin-shops. A recom- there are two wards for lying-in women. mendation that public gardens should be It also contains an amphitheatre for lecprovided in our larger towns, stands em- tures, and dissecting-rooms." The school bodied in the report presented to the Com- of medicine here is termed Secondaire," Water is mons House of Parliament, towards the and does not confer degrees. conclusion of last Session, by Mr. Buck- conveyed through the entire of the Hotel ingham’s committee; should it be com- Dieu, by an admirably constructed hyplied with, the health and morals of the En- draulic machine, made by. Feiny, the in. scription on which I must transcribe :glish people would be greatly improved. Rouen, with, in a great degree, old, nar- ° Hic di,peusat aquas, ægris satiisque, salnbres row, and crooked streets, a great number Nympha latens ; lateant sic tua dona, monet." of its houses being of wood, possesses a M. Flobert is the chief of this hospital. finer and a healthier population than any there I followed his practice, and Whilst I have town that ever seen, manufacturing from him, and from every one experienced and very little indeed of squalid poverty. This I much attribute to the temperance connected with the hospital, that politeof the inhabitants, for its local situation ness which in France is uniformly shown is not more favourable to health than our to us by our professional brethren there. Birmingham or Manchester. For though The practice resembles so much that of the the environs of Rouen are as healthful as Parisian hospitals, of which THE LANCET those of any city in the world, a great part has given, me teste, such accurate reports, of the town itself lies very low, along the that I forbear to transcribe any cases. banks of the Seine. M. the first Union by the first intention is not atmedical man in Rouen, and perhaps the tempted in all the cases that it ought be. The actual cautery I saw often equal of any in France, told me that he to considered the climate of Normandy to be used with great success, giving, on the whole, much less pain than the potenjust the same as that of England ; never- tial. When a woman is taken in labour, theless her capital possesses a very moist she is carried to a room adjoining the ward, one ; and from the frequent rains there, is often called the " pot de chambre" of the and placed on a high couch, while the process of delivery goes forward in province. The mists, however, are com- whole batted by currents of air from the sur- the presence of the class of females and rounding hills, and the higher parts of the gentlemen. This, to English eyes, appears city, near to the venerahle church of Saint indelicate. I afterwards, at Paris, had Patrice, are much dryer than the rest of * While on the Continent I was consulted bv a the town. The winds from the west and person who had been bitten by a dog suspected of north are those which most frequently pre- being mad, and who ob’tinateiy refused to submit vail ; the first is called " Vent d’aval," and to excision of the bitten part ; I ordered him to is moist; the north-east, " Vent d’amont," take catbonate of iron. No symptoms of hydrophobia have appeared. I merely mention this is cold and dry. ease for the purpose of that while prompt The inundations of the Seine tend to ezcision is the only treatment to Lo-- relied on, hon prophyldctiè 1 should soonest try, where, Ps produce agues, typhus fevers, and rheu- isin the the patitnt retuses to subthe present in&tdnce, matisms; which tendency is increased by mit to the operation. For the sake of lay readetsI the great variability of the climate. I again add, that excision only is to be relied on.

MEDICAL SKETCHES, 1834.

that

friends,

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it

Flobert,

820

ample opportunities of observing

the samei

system in the salo2is of my respected

MEMOIR OF DUPUYTREN. friend the Dr. Halmagrand, but I never witnessed in either city- the slightest indecorum amongst the elevés. ! IN the Number of THE LANCET for Amongst the numerous autopsies which occurred during my attendances upon the February the 14th, we gave a biographical Hotel Dieu in Rouen, the most interesting sketch of the late Baron DUPUYTREN. We was that of a woman who had a polypus now propose to take a view of him as a of the uterus quite as large as the head of of science, and record, while his mea boy four years old. is still fresh, some notice of all that The Hospice General contains two thou- mory he has done for the advancement of that sand of both sexes, principally to the perfecting of which his life art, des poor, aged, and infirm. The Hospice Alienes is au admirably conducted institu- and talents were incessantly devoted. It tion for lunatics. These three magnificent ’ not easy to convey a personal idea of hospitals are supported by the tolls of DUPUYTREN. He was one of those inRouen, and are attended by the Sisters of vhose countenance always Charity as nurses. struck as emblematic of a mind observers The public lillrary, at the Hotel de Ville, contains an excellent and well-selected whose exact character was not exprescollection of ancient and modern mediin words. The contemplation of his cine. Like all similar institutions in features left a "je-ne-scai-quoi"" impresFrance, it is open to every one. There exists in this town a well ar- ; sion on the feelings even of the most

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persons

is

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ranged botanic garden, containing four acute physiognomists,—half pleasurable thousand species of plants, and a course and half dissatisfied, -a sensation at once of public lectures on the science is annu- of admiration and dislike, for which it ally delivered. was found impossible to account. DuThe museum of Rouen is in its infancy, PUYTREN was a man of middle stature, but promises well; it contains some petrified and fossil shells, found on the coasts ( brown complexion, and strong make. In of the department (Seine Inferieure), not his youth he must have been extremely now discoverable in the neighbouring seas, handsome. Those who possessed the but resembling those found in the seas of of both, must have personal acquaintance India and China. I have been told that observed some resemblance between Dueagles and vultures, from the Highlands of Scotland, have been carried by high PUYTREN and the professor of anatomy in winds to the neighbourhood of Rouen. University of Dublin. The striking The mineral waters of Forges, near Rouen, magnificence of forehead, expressive of are much esteemed. They are chalybeate, of the highest order, and the and have three sources, called " La Roydark piercing eye which distin" " ale," La Reinette," and La Cardinale," the one, had their rival in the from Louis the Thirteenth, his Queen, and the Cardinal Richelieu, to whom they were other,-that eye, oftenest twinkling with recommended; I had not an opportunity playful malice in the one, and in the of minutely analysing tli,3 water, but in darting those stern annihilating taste it was nearer to the chalybeate at which rendered the presence of Swanlinbar in the county of Cavan in Ire- glances the great surgeon of the Hotel -Dieu so land, than to any other spring 1 recollect. and frequently so oppressive, The icps of medical practitioners at Rouen are very much the same as at Paris. to those who fell beneath his scrutiny. The city contains a society of physicians His eye" says a French author, "was and one of apothecaries. The latter proto terrify a’Corsair." enough fession, here, as all over France, is strictly But it was to the peculiar expression of confined to the practice of pharmacy; and, mouth that the physiognomy of Drto borrow the allusion of a distinguished professor of my alma mater, hi giving his FUYTHEN owed its characteristic cynicism testimony beforeMr. Warburton’s comappearance of universal distrust. mittee, an apothecary here would as littie Viewing the upper part of his face, and think of prescribing remedies, as a surgihis broad fair forehead cocal instrument maker would of perform- particularly a thin white chereleure, the by ing an operation. was that of a man imbued with figure 5, Salisbury Street, Strand, Feb. 19tb, 1835. of benevolence and accustomed

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