The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris
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86 Stomach contained a quart of reddish fluid: James Jackson, Jr., to James Jackson, Sr., March 20, 1832, Jackson Family Papers, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.
86 “Vast numbers of people”: New York Evening Post, May 7, 1832.
86 “a disease of the most frightful nature”: James Jackson, Jr., to James Jackson, Sr., April 1, 1832, Jackson Family Papers, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.
86 “It is almost like walking through an autopsy room”: Ibid.
86 The official bulletin of the morning: Journal of Ashbel Smith, April 3, 1832, Center for American History, University of Texas.
86 “But if, as I think it highly possible”: James Jackson, Jr., to James Jackson, Sr., November 25, 1831, Jackson Family Papers, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.
87 We are bound as men: James Jackson, Jr., to James Jackson, Sr., April 1, 1832, Jackson Family Papers, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.
87 The common understanding: See, generally, Delaporte, Disease and Civilization, 199–200.
87 Wild rumors spread: NewYork Mirror, May 19, 1832; New York Evening Post, May 18, 1832.
88 “We have had pestilence”: Susan Cooper to her sister, April 1832, James Fenimore Cooper Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University.
88 “in the doctor’s hands”: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. II, 242.
88 “bilious attack”: Ibid.
88 “It is spreading rapidly all over France”: Susan Cooper to her sister, April 1832, James Fenimore Cooper Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University.
88 “Samuel was nervous even unto flight”: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. II, 245.
88 “The churches are all hung in black”: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 120.
88 A young French woman, Amandine-Aurore-Lucie Dupin: Harlan, George Sand, 141.
89 There was a cholera-waltz: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 122.
89 I walk by the riverside: James Jackson, Jr., to James Jackson, Sr., April 5, 1832, Jackson Family Papers, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.
89 “bent on bringing some especial thing”: Memorial of James Fenimore Cooper, 18.
90 “My anxiety to finish my picture”: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 422.
90 The thirty-eight pictures in his painting: See, generally, David Tatham, “Samuel F. B. Morse’s Gallery of the Louvre: The Figures in the Foreground,” American Art Journal, Vol. XIII, No. 4 (Autumn 1981), 38–48.
92 “total want of all the usual courtesies”: Trollope, Domestic Manners of the Americans, 20.
92 “I do not like their principles”: Ibid., vii.
92 Nathaniel Willis had observed: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 110.
92 “He has a bold, original, independent mind”: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 426–28.
93 “without feeling every day”: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 164.
93 “Paris is a home to me”: Ibid., 165.
93 Even Alexander von Humboldt: Silverman, Lightning Man, 117.
93 “took pains to find me out”: Ibid.
94 Probably 12,000 people: Arnold, Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren,M.D., 54.
94 By summer’s end: Ibid.
94 In New York the epidemic: New York Times, April 15, 2008.
94 Fourth of July: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 423–25.
94 “like the buoys upon tide-water”: Ibid., 425.
95 “a splendid and valuable” work: Silverman, Lightning Man, 117.
95 In the completed painting: See, generally, Tatham, “Samuel F. B. Morse’s Gallery of the Louvre: The Figures in the Foreground,” American Art Journal, Vol. XIII, No. 4 (Autumn 1981), 38–48.
97 By rendering Sue Cooper as he did: Ibid., 41, 44–45.
97 “dissipating their time in gambling”: Mabee, American Leonardo, 129.
97 “disfiguring the landscape”: Ibid.
97 “numberless bowings”: Ibid.
97 “If it were a mere civility”: Ibid., 130.
97 Once, on a street in Rome: Silverman, Lightning Man, 105.
98 “He is with me”: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 426.
98 more than 200 people a day were dying: New York Evening Post, September 3, 1832.
98 His work at the Louvre at an end: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 432.
99 “the manner, the place, and the moment”: Silverman, Lightning Man, 153–54.
99 “I confess I thought the notion”: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 419.
99 I recollect also: Ibid., 418.
100 “My picture, c’est fini”: Cooper, Correspondence of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. I, 320.
100 It went on public view: New York Evening Post, October 14, 1833.
100 We do not know which most to admire: NewYork Mirror, November 2, 1833.
100 Eventually it was bought: Silverman, Lightning Man,129–30.
100 Morse had hoped to get: Ibid., 129.
101 That The Gallery: New York Times, July 30, 1982.
4. The Medicals
The wealth of material in the letters of the American medical students in Paris is extraordinary, and again one is struck by how extremely well written they are, even though the young men writing them (with the exception of Oliver Wendell Holmes) did not aspire to be writers or to write “writing.” Those by Mason Warren, for example, are exemplary in their thoroughness and clarity. But then it was a day and age when young people were expected to write letters to their families and to use the English language properly. Holmes’s letters are notable for their wit and his consistent, irrepressible love of learning.
Of books written at the time, Old Wine in New Bottles by Augustus Kinsley Gardener is particularly good on student life in Paris, and John Harley Warner’s excellent Against the Spirit of System: The French Impulse in Nineteenth-Century American Medicine (1998) has also been of great value in understanding the long-range effect of the Paris training.
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103 It is no trifle: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 86.
104 Largest of the hospitals: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 13.
104 This one hospital: Ibid., 13–14.
104 Second in size: Ibid., 14.
104 The Hôpital des Enfants Malades: Ibid., 15.
105 In the single year of 1833: Ibid., 13.
105 In Boston, by comparison: Ibid.
105 Velpeau, as everyone knew: Ibid., 29.
106 Compared to the hospitals: Stewart, Eminent French Surgeons, 129.
106 Its central amphitheater for lectures: The École de Médecine’s central amphitheater is still much as it was and still in use.
106 Further, for foreign students: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 3.
106 There were still, in the 1830s: Jones, “American Doctors and the Parisian Medical World, 1830–1840,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine, January–February 1973, 50.
106 [At about age eighteen]the lad: Cooper, The Pioneers, 72–73.
107 Enrollment was as high as: Jones, “American Doctors and the Parisian Medical World, 1830–1840,” 50.
107 The American students: Ibid., 47.
107 “attachment”: Ashbel Smith to Eugene Rousseau, January 1, 1832, Center for American History, University of Texas.
107 “I dislike to fix”: Ashbel Smith to Daniel Seymour, February 6, 1832, Center for American History, University of Texas.
108 “The glory of the week”: James Jackson, Jr., to James Jackson, Sr., November 1, 1832, Jackson Papers, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.
108 “perfect ignoramus”: Bowditch, Life and Correspondence of Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, Vol. II, 128.
108 “quite overwhelmed”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 158.<
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108 “very nice”: Oliver Wendell Holmes to his parents, May 31, 1833, Holmes Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
108 A “little extra”: Ibid.
108 Holmes found he could make it: Though the house where Holmes lived is no longer there on the rue Monsieur-le-Prince, the walk to the École can still be made in under four minutes, even by one more than three times his age.
108 I commonly rise: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 100.
109 “No one ever heard”: Arnold, Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D., 269.
109 he “never for a moment”: Ibid., 119.
109 In a pencil drawing: See Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 10.
109 “He was, in truth”: Arnold, Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D., 171–72.
110 “in regard to the necessities”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 70.
110 “Observe operations”: Arnold, Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D., 306.
110 “Send me without delay”: Ibid., 309.
111 “There is a face”: Jackson, Memoir of James Jackson,Jr., M.D., 212.
111 In the United States: Jones, “American Doctors and the Parisian Medical World, 1830–1840,” 50.
111 “a French head”: James Jackson, Jr., to James Jackson, Sr., July 27, 1831, Jackson Papers, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.
112 “shake them off from his broad shoulders”: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 93.
112 Holmes had from the start: See ibid., 102.
112 Dupuytren, one of the medical giants: See ibid., 93.
112 “a lesser kind of deity”: Ibid.
112 “make a show”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 89.
112 “His operations are always brilliant”: Arnold, Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D., 84.
112 “He is always endeavoring”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 108.
112 “very neat and rapid”: Ibid., 167.
113 “kind of off-hand way”: Ibid.
113 “a great drawer of blood”: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 92.
113 “Without it he would probably”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 205.
114 If his orders: Ibid., 108.
114 “In his lectures”: Ibid., 116.
114 “le brigand”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 84.
115 “a good sound head”: Holmes, “Some of My Early Teachers,” in Medical Essays, 1842–1882, 429.
115 “The French woman”: Gardener, Old Wine in New Bottles, 161.
115 The second great difference: Truax, The Doctors Warren of Boston, 153.
116 In the South: Shafer, The American Medical Profession, 1783–1850, 62.
116 “living a kind of student’s life”: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, 184.
116 “cut him into inch pieces”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 51.
116 Here the assiduous student: Gardener, Old Wine in New Bottles, 68–69.
117 I never was so busy: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 89.
117 By comparison, the library: Shafer, The American Medical Profession: 1783–1850, 73.
117 “What a feast”: Warner, Against the Spirit of System, 110.
118 “By the blessing of God”: Bowditch, Life and Correspondence of Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, Vol. I, 20.
118 “devotes himself”: Ibid., 28.
119 “The days are so much occupied”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 221.
119 “an entire new field”: Ibid., 191–92.
119 Madame Marie-Louise LaChapelle: Ibid.
119 Bowditch was to say: Arnold, Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D., 205 n.
119 To Wendell Holmes: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 186.
119 “I send you by ship”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 107.
120 Trois Frères: Ibid., 59.
120 “sad on finding himself”: Ibid., 111.
120 There is no doubt: Ibid.
121 “There is a notion”: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 106.
121 The King is caricatured: Ibid.
121 “sober revolution”: Ibid.
121 “impulsive, ardent”: Bowditch, Life and Correspondence of Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, Vol. I, 84–85.
121 Olivia Yardley: Ibid.
121 “La Grisette”: Arnold, Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D., 112.
122 “with his grisette”: Frazee, The Medical Student in Europe, 116.
122 In the 1840s young Philip Claiborne Gooch: Warner, Against the Spirit of System, 119. See also Gooch’s journal at the Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia.
122 I uncork the bottle: Ibid., 125.
123 “At 6 A.M. I go to the hospital”: Jones, “American Doctors and the Parisian Medical World, 1830–1840,” 76.
123 “the love of truth”: Holmes, “Some of My Early Teachers,” in Medical Essays, 1842–1882, 436.
124 “You are working, sir”: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 107.
124 “almost a novelty”: Ibid., 183.
124 “The mind of this gentleman”: Bowditch, Life and Correspondence of Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, Vol. I, 37.
124 “serene and grave aspect”: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 91.
125 “In very truth”: James Jackson to his father, January 16, 1833, Jackson Family Papers, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.
126 “We are a business”: Jackson, Memoir of James Jackson, Jr., M.D., 80.
126 “In two hours”: James Jackson to his father, July 13, 1833, Jackson Family Papers, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.
126 “Thrice happy”: Bowditch, Life and Correspondence of Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, Vol. I, 64.
126 because the young man: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 108–9.
127 “I am more and more attached”: Ibid., 89.
127 My aim has been to qualify: Oliver Wendell Holmes to his parents, April 30, 1834, Holmes Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
127 “I tell you that it is not throwing away money”: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 123.
127 “one poor fellow”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 195.
128 “Many of the dead”: Ibid., 196.
128 “No one could excite”: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 122.
128 “I have seldom seen”: Arnold, Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D., 178.
128 Our autumnal fever: Jackson, Memoir of James Jackson,Jr., M.D., 58.
128 “What shall I say of his ambition?”: Ibid., 65.
129 “They buried the old patriot”: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 459.
130 “great crowd”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 243.
130 George Shattuck: See Warner, Against the Spirit of System, 76–77.
130 “every kind of hurt”: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. I, 249.
130 “Blessed be science”: Oliver Wendell Holmes to his parents, December 28, 1834, Holmes Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
131 “He had quite a large audience”: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. I, 241.
131 They were standing in the midst: Ibid., 241.
131 “They appear to be nothing more”: Ibid., 113.
132 “a thousand things undone”: Ibid., 294.
132 “medical mecca”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 2.
132 nearly seven hundred Americans: Ibid., 2.
132 “Apart from all other considerations”: Arnold, Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D., 216.