THEODORE TRONCHIN 1 75 



that the charlatans are more esteemed than the wise of our art. Heed 

 them not, though they look down upon the ablest with disdain." 



So rapid was his success that by thirty he was well known in Europe, 

 and was already president of the College of Physicians of Amsterdam. 

 Boerhaave, as his health began to fail, tried hard to persuade his pupil 

 to come to Leyden as his successor; but the disturbed political conditions 

 in Holland, as well as the social and economic state brought about by 

 the war of the Austrian Succession, determined him to return to Geneva. 

 His graciousness and ease of manner covered an earnest, deeply religious 

 character, trained in the Calvinistic theology, and he wished to educate 

 his two sons, now lads in their early 'teens, in a cleaner social and moral 

 atmosphere than that of the Netherlands, where, to use his words, 

 "luxury increased as prosperity became less real .... where money 

 standards ruled in everything, and there were no longer manners, 

 morals, or religion." 



In 1753, therefore, he moved to Geneva, though he was offered every 

 inducement to remain in Holland. The regent offered him the position 

 of physician to the Stadtholder, then aged five, and a pension of 15,000 

 florins, while the Empress of Russia invited him to Moscow upon his 

 own terms to be her physician. 



Upon his arrival in Geneva there took place a display of medical 

 temper which throws an interesting light upon the workings of medical 

 registration boards in those days. The Faculty of Medicine, as it was 

 known in Geneva, was composed of doctors in medicine, surgeons, and 

 apothecaries. It was governed by the president, the senior doctor in 

 medicine, and two seigneurs commis, appointed by the Council of State. 

 No one could practice any of the three professions in the republic without 

 being elected to this Faculty or Corps of Medicine, and this election 

 could be had for physicians only on presentation of a diploma from a 

 recognized university, followed by an examination. Desiring to make 

 a fellow-member of the illustrious pupil of Boerhaave the Faculty had 

 obtained permission from the Council to dispense with the customary 

 examination, and were preparing to elect Tronchin by acclamation when 

 the little incident occurred which cut through to their human nature. 



There had been founded in 1 567, by Theodore Beze, a chair of medicine 



