White — EUas Bouhereau of La Rochelle. 137 



luy a donne ! car de mine, il I'a tres mauvaise, et d'esprit, on m.'a dit qii'il 

 n'en avoit que pour faire la reverence et pour dire, je suis vostre serviteur. 

 Mais ce qui a encore bien faict causer le monde c'est qu'il n'avoit qui que ce 

 soit pour I'accompaigner que le frere de la mariee. On a creu que c'estoit 

 une marque qu'il estoit descendu de fort bas lieu, et ce qui a confirme ce 

 soupQon, c'est qu'on a sceu que son maistre, car il est commis, aux aides 

 que je pense, n'avoit paz daigne honorer la mariee d'une seule visite, 

 contre la pratique ordinaire. Quelques unz ont aussi trouve estrange que 

 la mariee n'eust aucune suitte, et encore pluz de ce que quand on passa 

 le contract il n'y eut aucune apparence de nopces, pas seulement un verre 

 de vin. Ce que j'en dis, ce n'est pas que je m'en scandalise, je ne suis 

 pas encore si infirme, mais c'est que le monde parle ainsi. J 'ay creu que 

 vous prenies asses de part en cette affaire pour que je vous en informasse. 

 J'ay peur mesme que vous n'en prenies que trop pour vostre repos, car 

 quand on a beu a la sante d'une fille dans la calotte de sa perruque, je pense 

 qu'on doit avoir grand regret de la voir possedee par une autre." 



Haag states — I do not know on what authority — that Bouhereau took 

 the degree of M.D. at the University of Orange on August 29th, 1667. The 

 earliest reference I have found in the correspondence to the doctorate is on a 

 letter dated 20th July, 1667, from Montpellier, Monsieur B. dodeur en 

 Medecine d Rome; and on a letter of December 15th, 1667, on the address of 

 which Massiot — a future father-in-law or brother-in-law — addresses him as 

 Dodeur en Medecine de present. Agnew, following Haag, adds : " After taking 

 his degree, he travelled in Italy with his cousin, Elie Eichard Bouhereau." 

 Apart from the mistaken addition of Bouhereau to the cousm's name, there 

 seems to be an error here ; for unless we suppose that the degree was 

 conferred in absentia, the cousins were in Italy in August, 1667. We have 

 among the letters of that year one from Bassiou, of Montpellier, dated 

 June 21, and another from Journeau, a relative, dated August 15th, and 

 yet another from Les Freres Garbusay— bankers apparently — of Lyons, 

 dated September 1st, all addressed to Bouhereau at Eome.^ It is no 

 disparagement to Bouhereau to say that the degree must have been 

 rather easily acquired — at least in some cases. There was no school of 

 medicine at La Eochelle ; and with the exception of the six months' stay at 

 Paris in 1664, and again in 1667, there is no evidence that Bouhereau left 

 his home for more than a few days, until he went on his Italian tour, nor is 

 there any allusion in the correspondence to any studies in medicine or kindred 



' Tlie notite by M. Delayant, printed in the Appendix, p. 152, gives the date of Bouheieau's 

 doctorate as March 29, 1667. This fits in with tlie facts as presented in the correspondence. 



