1835.] Ba/Fon Dupuytren. 93 



disapproved of his mode of operating. It was said, why did 

 he not stop when he saw the difficulties of the case, and 

 finish it by several steps, placing the patient in the intervals 

 in the bath 1 Franco, Camper, Louis, &c., have given 

 examples of this method of proceeding, even when there 

 was no necessity for it. After operating, Dupuytren held 

 a consultation for the benefit of his patient. It was a kind 

 of clinical lecture, in which he heard the opinions of the 

 advanced students. This ought to have fatigued him. 

 But if in departing from the hospital, a journalist who had 

 not obtained sufficient matter for an article, came up to him 

 to request some, Dupuytren did not remain, but in his walk 

 prolonged his lecture, so as to allow the writer to take 

 hasty notes. Vidal has seen Dupuytren dressed in plain 

 green when the snow was on the ground, walking along 

 the bridges and dictating to M. Paillard who accompanied 

 him. Thus many lectures which have been published, as 

 being delivered at the Hotel Dieu, were actually produced 

 on the Pont Neuf. But Dupuytren was always a professor, 

 in the transactions at the Faculty, at the Academy of 

 Medicine, and even at the Institute. 



In 1825, he was admitted a member of the Academy of 

 Sciences. In July, 1830, he distinguished himself most 

 conspicuously by his attention to the wounded, and delivered 

 some excellent lectures upon gun-shot wounds, which have 

 been reported and published by his students. Dupuytren 

 occupied the situations of Inspector of the University, 

 Surgeon to Louis XVIII., and Charles X. He was an 

 Officer of the Legion of Honour, and a Baron. His name 

 was extensively known, for he had attained the summit of 

 his profession. At last his constitution began to fail. 

 About November, 1833, symptoms of hydro thorax appeared, 

 Dupuytren still however continued to appear in public with 

 his usual regularity. M. Bouillaud (to whom with Husson, 

 Cruveilhier, Marx, and Sanson, Dupuytren entrusted him- 

 self) has eloquently described the death-bed scene of the 

 great surgeon. *' After tedious and painful suffering Du- 

 puytren saw that all hope of cure was at an end ; he resigned 

 himself then with the most stoical fortitude, and preserved 

 till the last moment, all his presence of mind and his clear- 

 ness of judgment. He never uttered a word expressive of 



