Archives

ARCHIVES AND MANUSCRIPTS

(1200 cartons)

XVIIIth century Archives:

The Royal Academy of Surgery (1731-1793): 102 cartons and 17 registers known as Registers holding proceedings of the meetings.

Created in the reign of Louis XV by George Mareschal, First Surgeon of the King, and his successor François Gigot de la Peyronie, the Royal Academy of Surgery (ARC) received mission to check  and collect all reports coming from the whole  kingdom of France- and sometimes even from abroad – dealing with the art of surgery.

This fund holds, in particular, many traumatology, obstetrics, ophtalmology  and stomatology reports.

Instruments of research:

-         Thesis of Salem Yaqubi: Contribution to the History of the Royal Academy of Surgery, Rennes, 1967, summary and alphabetical persons or subjects index.

-          - Thesis of Jean Boisseaud: Parisian Members of the Royal Academy of Surgery, Rennes, 1962.

-         - “Mémoires” of the royal Academy of Surgery (5 vol. published of 1743 to 1774)

-         - General Catalogue of the manuscripts of public libraries of France, Paris, Volume 1, 1909, in which registers are indexed.

The Royal Society of Medicine (1776-1793): 178 cartons and 12 registers Created as Commission of medicine (Letters patent, April 29, 1776), to hold a correspondence with provincial physicians on epidemic and epizootic diseases.

Later, in 1778, the Commission was joined to the “Commission on the examination of the secret remedies and mineral waters”, becoming Royal Society of Medicine (SRM) (Letters patent, August 20, 1778). The Society becomes responsible for the management of mineral and medicinal waters, and the examination of remedies, attributions reserved since 1772 to  the “Commission on the examination of the secret remedies and the distribution of mineral waters”.

The SRM is given regulations for the organization of two weekly "ordinary meetings" during which the correspondences is read, discussed, all questions given an answer, and, also,  two yearly public meetings, the organization of competitive examinations, attribution of awards, publication of the most important  reports (see  Histoire de la Société royale de médecine (…)avec les mémoires de médecine et de physique médicale (…) tirés des registres de cette société, 10 vol. (1779-1798)

The SRM creates, under the direction of its perpetual secretary, Vicq d' Azyr, a network of a hundred elected correspondents, with French and foreign associates.

A major task achieved by the SRM is the first national survey on public health.

Such archives give a fair account of the SRM activities stressing the importance of hygienist concerns of that time : Letters and reports received, Reports on medicine, serial observations in meteorology and nosology, medical topographies.

Worth of notice is also the  midwives survey, the reply to 1775 and 1776 surveys, and the correspondence from the Faculty of Medicine.

Research Instruments :

-         Summary and analytical inventory, alphabetical index (names and subjects) (manuscripts card from Marie-Antoinette Fleury).

-         General Catalogue for manuscripts kept by public libraries in  France, Paris, Volume 1, 1909 in which registers are indexed.

XIXth century Archives:

The Society  of Medical School (1800-1821). : 25 cartons and 4 registers

-         The School of Health of Paris, created in 1794, collected the files of the Companies suppressed  in 1793 (the Royal Academy of Surgery and the Royal Company of Medicine having been dissolved on August 8, 1793) and formed, in 1800, within iself, the Society of the Medical school (SEM).

-         The SEM continued to gather observations from provincial physicians and make known their observations under the leadership of Michel-Augustin Thouret, the first Director of the School of Health. The SEM was dissolved in 1821, when the royal Academy of Medicine was created.

Instruments of research:

-         3rd cycle Thesis of Pascale Zwiebel-Muller : "The Society of the Medical School and Public Health in France from 1801 to 1821"

-         - Summary and analytical Inventory and alphabetical index (persons, places and subjects) written by Marie-Antoinette Fleury.

-         - General Catalogue of the manuscripts of the public libraries of France, Paris, Volume 1, 1909, in which the registers are indexed.

 The Central Committee for Cowpox [small pox ?] vaccine (1800-1823) : 98 cartons and 37 registers

The Central Committee of Vaccinations was requested, in close cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior, to collect and process all information  provided to the Ministry by the Prefects, the vaccinators and the Committees of vaccine created in all important cities. The Committee maintained a close correspondence with physicians ardent propagators of the new vaccination. Inside archives are classified : administratove documents, vaccination results and correspondence. The Academy Library holds also the archives of the Commission de Vaccine de l'Académie de Médecine, created

after 1823.

Research instruments :

 - Summary and analytical inventory, alphabetical index (names and subjects) (manuscripts card from Marie-Antoinette Fleury).

-         Catalogue General of the manuscripts of public libraries of France, Paris, Volume 1, 1909.

-         Report from the Central Committee for vaccines (subsequently from the Academy of medicine) on vaccinations in France … from 1803-1937

Files of the Academy of Medicine since 1820:

 710 paperboards for research:

-         Summary Inventory carried out by the Public records

-         - “Mémoires” of the Academy of Medicine (42 volumes)

-          - Bulletin of the National Academy of Medicine (since 1936) The files of the Academy of Medicine, which comprise some gaps, can be broken up into several funds. “Memoires”, correspondence and official minutes of the meetings. 159 paperboards (320 bundles) and 109 registers.

 Prices decreed by the Academy (since 1835). 541 paperboards. The “mémoires”, when they were not integrated directly in the collections, are preserved in paperboards classified by heading of price and year.

Sealed folds (1826-1909). 10 paperboards. The sealed folds report a discovery, an experiment, the formula of a drug of which the depositor wished to guarantee its rights on their invention. Eight hundred sealed folds are preserved and classified by chronological order of deposit. Instruments of research: - Inventory

Biographical files. Approximately 8000. Primarily files of the members of the Academy: they are the administrative files enriched by various documents: parts of marital status, biographical articles, correspondence, titles and scientific work, bibliographical references, iconographic documents. Instruments of research: catalogue

Manuscripts. 800 connected volumes. The first 551 volumes are indexed in the General Catalogue of the manuscripts of the public libraries of France, Paris, Volume 1, 1909. The following manuscripts are indexed in the additional inventory.

 Manuscripts of the Companies of the “Ancien Régime”. They are the registers quoted previously and collections of correspondence

Manuscripts of the Daremberg collection. 140 volumes. (Mss402-542) Primarily copies and extracts of Greek and Latin medical manuscripts preserved in various libraries of France and Europe, as well as manuscripts, papers and correspondence of Charles Daremberg himself. Instrument of research: - General Catalogue of the manuscripts of the public libraries of France, Paris, Volume 1, 1909

Manuscripts of the Mattéi collection. 160 volumes. (Mss240-401) Notes and observations; publications of Doctor Antoine Mattéi. Instrument of research: - General Catalogue of the manuscripts of the public libraries of France, Paris, Volume 1, 1909