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82 Biographical Account of [Aug. 



eminence, and that, after such success, a man rests satisfied 

 and relaxes to ease and inertia. On the contrary, by Con- 

 cours, rivals are constantly rising up, closing upon you, 

 treading at your heels ; and, unless you go on, will not fail 

 to take your place. Dupuytren felt this ; and never did any 

 man go through a more brilliant series of labours to sustain 

 his reputation. He was indefatigable beyond example. For 

 twelve years he was at the hospital, morning and evening, 

 at 6 o'clock ; and, well or ill, was not known to be absent 

 onc« during that long period, at the Hotel Dieu! Each 

 morning, Sunday only excepted, he attended to 300 patients, 

 delivered a clinical lecture, performed several operations, 

 gave advice to some hundreds of out patients, and then 

 walked home to breakfast at half-past 10 o'clock! 



After this, he saw his private patients, attended to the 

 examinations of students at the school of medicine, per- 

 formed his private operations ; and, at 6 in the evening, 

 again went round the wards of the hospital. Nothing less 

 than the discipline ofConcours could have trained a man to 

 the performance of such arduous duties, such tremendous 

 labour.* 



William Dupuytren, one of the most distinguished sur- 

 geons of modern times, was born at Pierre Buffiere, on the 

 6th October, 1777. When three years of age a strange 

 event happened to him. He was a beautiful child, and was 

 playing in one of the streets of his native city, when a lady 

 who was travelling, and whose circumstances rendered it 

 advantageous that she should have a son, even at a great 

 price, happened to pass by that way. She was captivated 

 with the boy, and carried him off towards Toulouse. While 

 congratulating herself upon the possession of such a hand- 

 some child, his father succeeded in overtaking her, and 

 made her restore his son. 



His appearance gained for him the regard of a cavalry 



* For these introductory observations, as well as for the interesting remarks 

 embodied in many of the notes attached to this memoir, I am indebted to my able 

 friend and colleague Mr. King, who possessed ample opportunities of studying 

 the character of this distinguislied surgeon. The facts in the text are derived from 

 the " Essai Historique sur Dupuytren. Par Vidal, (de Cassis), Professeur 

 agreg6 a la faculty de medicine de Paris," &c. 8vo. 1835., to which are appended 

 the eulogies pronounced upon the deceased by Orfila, Larrey, Bouillaud, Royer, 

 Collard, and Teissier. — Edit. 



