Biographical Memoir q/' M. Corvisart. 11 



M. Corvisart, to whose ardent genius this tedious progress 

 could not fail to be singularly disagreeable, had yet the patience 

 to conform himself to it in every point ; but he chose his mas- 

 ters as a man destined to become one himself Desbois de 

 Rochefort, chief physician of La Charite, and Dessault, chief 

 surgeon of the Hotel-Dieu, in the healing art two of the most 

 eminent men of their time, became his principal patrons. It 

 is well known that Desbois de Rochefort had the great merit of 

 first shewing the example of regularly delivering clinical lec- 

 tures in his hospital. Under his guidance, M. Corvisart for 

 several years occupied himself in the observation of diseases, 

 and in the opening of bodies. For this task he had a real pas- 

 sion. The melancholy spectacles which it displays, the dangers 

 to which it is liable, neither repelled nor discouraged him. A 

 puncture which he had received while dissecting, brought him 

 almost to the point of death, and he is said to have escaped only 

 through the assiduous care which Dessault lavished on him. 

 He also, at a very eai-ly period, delivered in his own house lec- 

 tures — not on medicine properly so called (for he did not think 

 that so young a doctor could conscientiously do so), but on 

 anatomy and physiology; and his perspicuity and ardour at- 

 tracted a crowd of hearers. Nothing more was wanting to him, 

 but to be himself at the head of an hospital, where he could 

 freely pursue the views which his growing experience suggested 

 to him. The first masters of the art judged him worthy of one, 

 and he thought himself on the point of attaining this object of 

 his wishes, when a cause the most trifling in the world kept him 

 back for several years. The customs and dress of physicians 

 were scarcely less antique than the system of government of the 

 Faculty. If Moliere had made them lay aside the gown and 

 the pointed cap, they had at least preserved the full-bottomed 

 wig, which no one else any longer wore, and it was on entering 

 into office that they had to mufile themselves in it. It is af- 

 firmed that M. Corvisart and M. Halle were the first who gave 

 the scandal of not assuming it, and that this levity, as it was 

 called, proved very hurtful to them. It is at least certain, that, 

 on the occasion of which we speak, it was the cause of M. Cor- 

 visart's disappointment, and that through the person from whom 

 he had least reason to expect it. A celebrated lady, whose hug- 



