Abstract
IN a recent paper on this subject (Proc. Boy. Soc. Med., 34, Sect. Hist. Med. 31; 1941) Dr. J. D. Rolleston claims that this work, which covered twenty–one years of the reign of Louis XIV and eight years of the Regency, contained many passages of medical interest, though they had received little attention from medical historians. They could be classified under the headings of prevalent diseases, portraits of contemporary doctors and miscellaneous topics. Small–pox was by far the most frequent of all the diseases mentioned by Saint–Simon, and its prevalence among royal personages and courtiers was a striking proof of the efficacy of Jenner's discovery, as since that time the disease was almost unknown among the upper classes in whom conscientious objectors were rare. Among chronic infections described in the “Mémoires” syphilis undoubtedly held the first place and claimed several courtiers of both sexes among its victims. Many cases of lung disease, probably of a tuberculous nature, are also mentioned. As might be expected owing to their indulgence in highly nitrogenous diet, large consumption of alcohol and lack of exercise, a great number of courtiers as well as Louis XIV suffered from gout. Several examples of nervous and mental diseases as well as alcoholism and cancer are also alluded to by Saint–Simon. Of the thirteen surgical operations mentioned five were for stone in the bladder and four for fistula in ano, a complaint which, after the operation on Louis XIV, became as fashionable as appendicitis did more than two centuries later after the operation on Edward VII.
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Medicine in Saint–Simon's “Mémoires”. Nature 148, 82 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/148082a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/148082a0