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Article Dans Une Revue Revue historique Année : 2013

The Doctor Regents of the Paris Faculty of Medicine and Caring for the “Sickly Poor” in Parisian Parishes (1644–1791)

Les docteurs régents de la Faculté de médecine de Paris et la fourniture de soins aux « bons pauvres malades » dans les paroisses parisiennes (1644-1791)

Résumé

This paper aims to examine the charitable practices of the French medical elite, namely the doctor regents of the Faculty of Medicine, as an attempt to preserve their professional interests and confiscate a parish-based source of income between 1644 and 1791. Confronted with Théophraste Renaudot’s project of charitable medical consultations in 1630, to whom they opposed their exclusive right to practice medicine before the Parliament of Paris, the doctor regents set up their own consultations for the sick poor in 1644. Following a parliamentary request against the enactment of the faculty’s privilege, these charitable consultations were organized twice a week as a collective duty under the care of the dean and with a minimum of six doctor regents, who also served as practical instructors for young physicians. However, this free service was difficult to impose on the doctor regents because in addition to being time-consuming and unpaid, these consultations restricted their own private practice until the introduction of financial compensation in 1779. In addition to the faculty's charitable consultations, the doctor regents became involved in medical provision to parish-based charities. Regulations helped establish their duties, which consisted of visiting the poor, screening the sick, and prescribing tailored diets and medication using low-cost common drugs, prepared and served by the Daughters of the Charity. Doctor regents could accordingly apply their theoretical knowledge, become known to the local notability, and identify the needs of a new pool of customers. The small yearly fee, between 50 and 200 livres per year, was fixed and regular, thus making up for late and more uncertain payments from their private practice. After 1770, sick parish poor relief developed into small structures for medical provision such as the Saint Merri hospital. The development of this charitable activity had consequences for the configuring of medical care in 18th-century Paris. New professional relationships were organized between the doctor regents and the sisters, to whom the former entrusted more technical medical skills such as the preparation of medication, bleeding, and patient monitoring. This also generated a new category of customers, the sick parish poor, the more so as the hospital was gradually being seen as a repulsive location for medical care. Doctor regents used this new medical opportunity not only to identify the specific needs of these customers, such as short-term cures rather than long-term advice on diet aiming to help them resume their economic activity, but also, as did Pierre Lalouette and Joseph Jacques Gardanne, as a means of educating potential paying customers in how to avoid the services of unqualified healers.
Élite médicale, les docteurs régents de la Faculté de médecine de Paris possèdent le privilège exclusif d’exercer leur art dans la capitale. À ce titre, la Faculté de médecine parvient à faire interdire la tenue des consultations charitables mises en place par Théophraste Renaudot, docteur de Montpellier, mais le Parlement lui donne l’ordre d’y suppléer en 1644. Si la Faculté de médecine peine à imposer la tenue de ces consultations gratuites aux docteurs régents, ceux-ci s’adonnent aux activités charitables dans le cadre des Compagnies de Charité de paroisse tenues par les Filles de la Charité de Saint-Vincent-de-Paul. Devenu médecin de paroisse, aux appointements fixes et réguliers, le docteur régent explore son territoire d’exercice, accumule un savoir spécifique sur un groupe, « consommateur de la charité », exprimant une demande de soin spécifique et pouvant, à tout moment, retrouver une position économique stable. Acteur de la nouvelle politique d’assistance du pouvoir royal, les docteurs régents cherchent à dominer ce « marché de la charité », dont l’implantation paroissiale tend progressivement à s’élargir au Royaume.
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Dates et versions

hal-04065547 , version 1 (11-04-2023)

Identifiants

Citer

Isabelle Coquillard. The Doctor Regents of the Paris Faculty of Medicine and Caring for the “Sickly Poor” in Parisian Parishes (1644–1791). Revue historique, 2013, 668 (4), pp.875. ⟨10.3917/rhis.134.0875⟩. ⟨hal-04065547⟩
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