THEODORE TRONCHIN 1 79 



seems in no way to have turned his head. From this time Tronchin 

 became the best-known physician in Europe. Not only did people 

 come to Geneva to be inoculated by him, but to consult him for every 

 ailment. A voluminous correspondence shows the extent and quality 

 of his clientele; for in that day the lack of laboratory methods, and the 

 diagnosis of disease by symptoms, enabled in greater degree than now 

 the successful management of patients by correspondence. Not only 

 the noblesse of France became his patients, but the Queen of Sweden, 

 the King of Denmark, the Elector Palatine, the Princes Hohenzollern 

 and Anhalt, the Duke of Savoy, and even Pope Clement XIV consulted 

 him, rigid Calvinist though the doctor was, about the health of Cardinal 

 Colonna. 



In 1766 Louis Phillipe, Due d' Orleans, who had remained a firm 

 friend of the Genevan physician, invited him to Paris as his physician 

 in place of the aged Petit who resigned by reason of illness. The duke 

 writes " I assure you that I deserve your friendship, for I esteemed you 

 before I knew you personally; but now I love you, and am under obliga- 

 tion to you for making safe the future of my son." After some hesitation 

 Tronchin accepted the position and moved to Paris, where he was most 

 comfortably lodged in the Palais Royal, in a suite of five apartments. 

 A cook and three servants were assigned him, and he had the use of a 

 coach and two pairs of beautiful black horses. 



If he had thought his move would give him leisure for his remaining 

 years, he was much mistaken. Aside from the constant attendance 

 upon the duke, who led a most strenuous life of exercise and social 

 activity, Tronchin was overwhelmed with attention and the burden of 

 fashionable practice. His former patients welcomed his coming to 

 Paris with enthusiasm, and hastened to show their joy. The duchess 

 d'Arville sent a bust of Esculapius for his library — Mme. Jancourt a 

 Turkish carpet. 



The remaining fifteen years of his life were spent in the midst of the 

 complex life of the French court, preceding the Revolution, and busied 

 with the details of an increasing practice, which, fashionable as it was, 

 remained loyal and undiminished to his death. This practice was so 

 extensive and successful, not only among the rich but also among the 



