Desgenettes, René Nicolas Dufriche (1762-1837), Baron Desgenettes

1. Letter to M. Marcel, 5 October 1800.

2. Letter to M. Dubreton, commissaire de la 2eme division militaire, Paris, 5 December 1802.

3. Letter to M. Vaugeulin, directeur de l'ecole de pharmacie, Paris, 1 September 1804.

4. Letter to an unnamed Government minister, Paris, 26 April 1805.

5. Letter to an unnamed female recipient, Paris, 29 January 1806.

6. Letter to M. Marcel signed jointly by Desgenettes and Nicholas Heurteloup, Paris, 16 May 1806, and accompanying note dated 25 May 1806.

7. Letter to le directeurs central des hôspitaux signed jointly by Desgrenettes, Nicholas Heurteloup, and Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, Paris, 22 August 1806.

8. Letter to an unnamed doctor, Paris, 27 February 1807.

9. Letter to an unnamed recipient, Berlin, 18 August 1807.

10. Letter to an unnamed recipient, Berlin, 21 April 1808.

11. Letter to an unnamed recipient, Paris, 6 October 1808.

12. Letter to le ministre-directeur l'administration de la guerre, Madrid, 6 March 1809.

13. Letter to an unnamed recipient, Paris, 31 January 1811.

14. Brief note to unnamed recipients, Paris, 15 November 1811.

15. Letter to le ministre-directeur l'administration de la guerre, signed jointly by Desgenettes, Dominique Larrey and one other, Paris, 14 December 1811.

16. Note to an unnamed recipient, Paris, February 1812.

17. Letter to le ministre-directeur l'administration de la guerre, Berlin, 21 April 1812.

18. Letter to Alexander I, Emperor of Russia, Wilna, 12 December 1812.

19. Letter to Baron Claude-Philibert-Édouard Mounier, secretaire de cabinet de Napoléon, Paris, 20 April 1813.

20. Note to an unnamed Count, Dresden, 27 September 1813.

21. Letter to an unnamed General, Torgau, 27 December 1813.

22. Letter to an unnamed General, Paris, 25 January 1815.

23. Note to M. Didot, Paris, 12 March 1816.

24. Note to an unnamed recipient, 5 April 1817.

25. Note to M. Boudet, Paris, 18 May 1817.

26. Note dated 19 May 1820.

27. Note to M. Laval, Paris, 28 May 1820.

28. Note to M. Boudet, Paris, 14 September 1820.

29. Note to an unnamed recipient, 16 December 1820.

30. Letter to an unnamed recipient, Paris, 21 October 1821.

31. Letter to M. de Jussieu, Paris, 18 October 1824.

32. Note to M. Boudet, Paris, 9 April 1825.

33. Note to M. Adelon, Paris, 25 may 1826.

34. Letter to M. Molard, Paris, 6 April 1827.

35. Letter to M. Tardieu, Paris, 27 December 1827.

36. Letter to an unnamed Colonel, Paris, 10 December 1828.

37. Letter to M. Würtz, publisher, Paris, 24 March 1831.

38. Letter addressed to M. le Préfet, Paris, 2 August 1831.

39. Letter to M. de Berenger, Paris, 28 may 1832.

40. Letter to M. le directeur de l'administration, written in response to the note of 24th May and signed by Desgenettes and others, Paris, 28 May 1832.

41. Note to Mme la Comtesse de Lobau, Paris, 25 February 1834.

42. Note to M. le Colonel, Baron de Gazan, Paris, 9 May 1834.

43. Letter to Baron Dominique Larrey, Paris, 31 July 1834.

44. Letter to M. le directeur de l'administration, written in response to the note of 1st September and signed by Desgenettes and others, 3 September 1834.

45. Letter to M. le directeur de l'administration, written in response to the note of 11th August 1834 and signed by Desgenettes and one other, Paris, 4 September 1834

46. Letter to M. le directeur de l'administration, written in response to the note of 12 September and signed by Desgenettes and others, Paris, 17 September 1834

47. Note to an unnamed recipient, 20 October 1836.

48. Piece of paper containing Desgenettes' signature.

49. Three signed notes to unnamed recipients, n.d.

50. Certificate signed by Desgenettes as mayor of the 10th arrondissement of Paris, 25 June 1831.

51. Letter to M. Baduel, Berlin, 7 May 1808.

1800-1836

1 File

Purchased from Seine stalls, Paris, November 1927 (acc.67387), Charavay, Paris, December 1927 (acc.67371), October 1928 / April 1929 (acc.63700), an unknown vendor, Paris, April 1930 (acc.67391), Desgranges, Paris, October 1930 (acc.63459), Stevens, London, December 1930 (acc.68108), Charavay, Paris, April 1931 (acc.64715), Desgranges, Paris, May 1931 (acc.64702), Sotheby's, London, February 1932 (acc.76088), Desgranges, Paris, November 1932 (acc.65667), Desgranges or Charavay, Paris, January 1933 (acc.66034), Desgranges or Charavay, Paris, circa October 1933 (acc.66365), Glendining, London, August 1934 (acc.67853), Charavay, Paris, September 1934 (acc. 67126), 1935 (acc.68515), at an unknown date before 1936 (acc.69220), and Transferred from Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, c.1939 (acc.91800). Accession details are not known for a number of items. An additional letter, bought from Maggs Bros in 2002 has been added to this file (acc. 996).

René Nicolas Dufriche Desgenettes was a French military surgeon, best known as chief doctor to the French army in Egypt and at the battle of Waterloo.

René Desgenettes was born in Alençon, Normandy, in 1762. After studying classics in Paris he graduated in medicine from the University of Montpellier in 1789. Shortly afterwards he travelled to Paris to join the Girondins. He went on to offer his services to the army as a surgeon. During the Italian campaign of 1793-1795 he got to know Napoléon Bonaparte, who became a supporter. In 1798 he was made chief physician to the Armée d'Orient and accompanied Napoléon to Egypt and Syria. During this campaign Desgenettes was faced with cases of of smallpox, scurvy, contagious conjunctivitis, and dysentery, as well as an epidemic of bubonic plague.

When the First Empire was proclaimed in 1804, Desgenettes became inspector-general of the Army Health Service. In this role he travelled to Spain to study yellow fever and Tuscany to identify an unknown epidemic. As military action increased Desgenettes was made chief doctor of the army, travelling to Germany, Spain and Russia with various campaigns. He was taken prisoner by the Russians at Vilnius in December 1812, but freed after Tsar Alexander III heard how he had taken care of wounded Russian soldiers. He was then trapped in the German city of Torgau following the French defeat in October 1813. The city was in the midst of a typhus epidemic. When he returned to France the following May, Desgenettes found that after Napoléon's defeat he had been stripped of many of his titles and roles. In return, he was made a knight of the Légion d'honneur.

During the Hundred Days he re-assumed his role as chief doctor to Napoléon's army, and assisted at the battle of Waterloo. Following Napoléon's defeat he returned to Paris. He continued to work at the Val-de-Grâce hospital, where he had worked between military campaigns since 1795. From 1830-1834 he was mayor of the 10th arrondissement of Paris. In 1832 he became chief doctor of L'Hôtel national des Invalides.

At Wellcome Collection:

MSS.7034-7035, and 1721/3 relate to Baron Desgenettes