Licence: In copyright
Credit: Moliere and the physician / by Max Kahn. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![[345] Moliere has tremendously exaggerated in the humorous episodes and the comic situations the true condition of his time. Disgusted as he was with science that was unable to cure his disease, (because no science could cure it), he sought aid amongst the quacks of dhe Pont Neuf; he consulted the town criers and the wandering mountebanks. If we examine the lives and works of leading physicians of Paris of the seven- teenth century, we must inevitably come to the conclusion that [346] Moliere’s doctors, the Tomes, Desfonandres, Macrotons, Bahis are mere burlesques. That they have survived such a long period is due to the fact that they are comical even if not true, and that in their conversation and behavior grains of realism may be discovered. Moliere was very well acquainted with the physicians of the court. Fagon was at that time the chief physician in attendance on the king, a position of great dignity and importance. Fagon occupied the chair of Botany in the Jardin Royal, and it was his endeavors and studies that added importance to the science of botany. He corresponded with the learned men of the whole world, and received from them rare botanical specimens which he stored in the Jardin Royal, making that institution the most famous museum in Europe. In the year 1665 he made the first catalog of this collection under the title of Hortus Regius. He was a most honest man. ‘‘His disinterestedness,” says M. Fauvelle, “was as wonder- ful as his learning. He abolished the buying of offices in the learned colleges, and refused large sums of money that were offered him. His modesty was very great, and he always sought to avoid the honors that the faculty desired to confer on him. Compulsion was exerted to persuade him to accept his nomination to the Academie des Sciences.'' Dr. Fagon’s co-worker was Armand de Mauvillain, the friend of Moliere. de Mauvillain was a physician of the Mont- pellier school, and, therefore, an enemy of the Parisian faculty. It has been surmised that this doctor gave a helping hand to Moliere in writing the satires on Medicine. Eeceiving the degree in medicine from the University of Paris in 1648, he settled in the capital and had quite a lucrative practice. With the advance of the teachings of Harvey and Malpighi, he became an adherent of the theory of the circulation of the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2804051x_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
