Médecins, Climat et Epidémies à la fin du XVIIIe siècle by J.-P. Desaive, et al. (review)

REVIEWS 481 Drangl Laclos, Richardson, and others. Incidentally, Richardson's Clarissa establishes a newtragictraditionaccording to SheldonSacks, the heroinecombiningfreedom and triumphwith determinism and deathin her 'psychologically inevitable[but] ethically forgivenblunder.'And Blake's 'SickRose' isviewedbyJohnNeubauerasa 'highlysuccessful attemptto reestablish anearlierunitybetween mindandnature.' That intermediate'Retreatfrom Reason' byNature istracedbyBertrandH. Bronsonto post-Humeian literature.In contrast totheseauthors' stress onthefeelings, GeorgeArmstrongKellyattempts to seeirrationalityasthe productof a collision of three strainsof rationalityin politics,raison d'dtat,lumibres, and empiricaltraditionalism . P.Vernii•reiscontent to notethepopularityof supposedly rationalist belles lettres dwellingondemons andfairies.Morepenetratingthanthesetwoarticles is HaydenWhite'sre-examination of the neglectedtruism that the Enlightened historians distorted butstillrecognized theroleof the'irrational'inhistory. The readerwillalso findaninteresting discussion byPaulHenryLangof theopdra comique assource of GrandOpera,andbyFrederickJ.Cummings(withillustrations) on the genesis of romanticismin the later eighteenthcentury'sartisticstresson 'recreatinghumanexperienceasit actuallyexisted.'One may passlightlyoverthe volume's earlieressays, whichareeithersketchy (LouisGottschalk's three-generation theoryofthephilosophes), bland(HenrySteele Commager's linkingof'America'with the Europeancosmopolitan enlightenment),compressed (Hugh M. Davidson's treatmentof the implicationsfor theoriesof knowledgein the Encyclopaedia's strugglebetweenanalphabetical andscientific arrangement),or opinionated,rambling ,andshamelessly unedited(C. Truesdell's accountof the'supremegeometer,' Leonard Euler). Apart from Franqois Jost'smere outline of Englishand French sources in Tieck'sWilliamLove!!, the lateressays in the bookare provocative and sometimes penetrating. A. LLOYD MOOTE University ofSouthern CaliJbrnia Mddecins, ClimatetEpiddmies • lafin du xvIIIe sibcle. j.-P. DESAIVE, J.-P.GOUBERT, E. t•EROYt•.•t•VR•,J. M•¾•a, O.Mvt•t•a,j.-•,. •,E•r•a.Paris,Mouton, •972. Pp. 254. 59gg•dD gld.38.5o. Thehistory ofmedicine, likethatofthelawandofreligion, istooimportant asubject to remain an after-hourshobbyof its practitioners.In Franceat leastthere is a flourishing school ofprofessional historians whoarestudying thewiderimplications ofthedevelopment ofmedicine andofmedical services. The present volume results from the inventiveness ofJeanMeyerwhorecognised the enormous valueof the enquiryonepidemics setunderway bytheAcademy of Medicine in •776underthe direction of Vicqd'Azyr,andwhichcontinued until •794.The enquiryhadclinical assumptions derivedfromGalenandHippocrates andheldthattherewasacorrelationbetween climate andepidemics. In orderbetterto analyze therelationship, a wide rangeof precise meteorological readingsfrom all over Francewasto be compiled, using doctors asmeteorologists intheplaces wheretheypractised. 482 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW Using the finestmarine barometersof the time (and the need for accurately constructed measuringdevices whichgavecomparable readingswasheavilyemphasized in theinstructions), andunderthesurveillance of theContr•le Gdndral, this networkofcorrespondents reportedonclimate, thegeographical peculiarities ofthe areasin whichtheyworked,andtheoutbreakandsocial incidence of epidemics in regularreportsforwardedto the Academyof Medicine.Significantly, the tax administrationand the doctorsworked togetherto providethe mostaccurateand extensivestatistical networkin Franceat the end of the Old Regime.There were variations in the qualityof returns;in the eighteenthcentury,asat anyothertime, some doctors were more conscientious than others. Nevertheless, the returns to the enquiry constitutean extremelyrich bodyof information whichis nowbeingexploitedbyquantitative analysis, andtheseessays constitute thefirstvolumeof what promises tobeaseries of publications derivedfromthismaterial. The introductionandlastthreeessays havealreadybeenpublished injournalsbut arebroughttogetherherein a usefulcollection. The bookalsocontains an unpublishedtechnical studyofthemethods usedtohandletheeighteenth-century statistics on climatological readingsand to put them in a form accessible to historians of agriculturalhistory,pricecycles, and climate.Le RoyLadurie,J.-P. Desaive,O. Muller,andvarious technical assistants collaborated onelaborating themethod.The preliminary findingfromtheiranalysis suggests thatwhiletheaverage climate atthe end of the eighteenthcenturywassimilarto that of the present,it had somewhat hottersummers andcolderwinters.This isconsonant withthelonger-termpicture providedby H. von Rudloff in hisDieSchwankungen undPendelungen des Klimas in Europa(•967).J.-P.Peterdiscusses thedifficulties of medicalterminology basedon differentdiagnostic philosophies andstandards ofobservation thanthose whichdate fromthemid-nineteenth century tothepresent; oftenclinical descriptions ofputrid fevers,vapours, flux, etc.cannotbe identifiedin modernterms,althoughspecific illnesses like smallpoxcan.The second half of thebookiscomprised of studies of Brittany. JeanMeyerhaswrittenamodelstudy ofthemedical corps ofthatprovince, showing theirconcentration, the social hierarchyof doctors andsurgeons andtheir interaction, andprovidingbiographies of themostimportantdoctors in thearea. J.-P. Goubertillustrates the progression of epidemics in the provinceand their demographic consequences. One unfortunateweakness of thebookistheabsence of anadequate indexor acritical bibliography of thematerialcitedinthefootnotes. Historiansof the eighteenthcenturywillbestimulated bythisbook.The authors self-consciously avoid'psychological' interpretations of theextenttowhichmedical thinkingreflectsthe thoughtof the ruling class on social issues, a themeexplored with suchiconoclastic brillianceby MichelFoucaultin several booksoverthe last fifteenyears.They limit themselves tographs,maps,statistics, andsoberprose.Yet, allthesestudies showthewealthof insightintoFrenchsociety attheendof theOld Regimewhichcanbe gainedby examiningthe activities of a major professional grouplikethedoctors. The same canbesaidof priests, bureaucrats, andlawyers. DAVID HIGGS University ofToronto ...