French Manuscript Letters, mainly relating to the Medical Faculty at the University of Paris

Thirty letters to Edme-Claude Bourru, Dean of the Medical Faculty at the University of Paris. Includes requests for Dr Bourrus's attendance as an examiner at the College of Pharmacy; lists of candidates for examination, and other administrative matters relating to the Medical Faculty; and some medical advice. Also includes an invitation to a meeting of the Administration Committee of the Société Académique sent on behalf of Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, and signed by a clerk, 1772-1821.

Nine letters to other Deans of the University of Paris Medical Faculty, 1780s.

Forty six miscellaneous letters on medical matters, 1684-1831.

1684-1831

1 file

Purchased via private sale, November 2011.

Edme-Claude Bourru (1741-1823) was born in Paris, to a family that had produced a long line of doctors.

He studied at Cardinal-Lemoine College, part of the University of Paris, completing his Bachelors degree in 1763. Upon graduation he immediately enrolled on a medical course at the Medical Faculty of the same University. On 24 September 1766, he presented his thesis "Est-ce que la rage à son siège dans le système nerveux ? Peut-on la guérir avec des antispasmodiques" (Is rabies a condition of the nervous system? Can it be healed with antispasmodics?).

Just three months later Bourru became Professor of the Medical Faculty, and was given the title Doctor Regent. Between 1771 and 1775 he was the Medical Faculty Librarian, listing and classifying over 12 thousand works ready for a move of the collections from the rue de la Bucherie to the rue de Beauvais.

On the 8 November 1777 he was appointed Professor of Surgery. Two years later this post was expanded to include responsibility for Pharmacy courses provided by the Faculty, and in November 1786 he became Dean of the Medical Faculty. He held this post until the University of Paris was disbanded in 1793, as part of the revolutionary crackdown on corporate bodies.

In 1804 Bourru was admitted to the Royal Society of Medicine, soon afterwards becoming president. He suffered a stroke in 1819 which caused him to lose his memory. A second stroke in 1823 ended his life.