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THIS MONTH'S OBJECT
The First Consul's glaive
A prestigious weapon of pomp and circumstance, the First Consul's glaive was made by Boutet, the director of the Versailles Arms Manufactory, in 1800. It is a masterpiece of the swordmaker's art.
BIBLIOTHEQUE M. LAPEYRE - FONDATION NAPOLEON
During the month of August, the Fondation Napoléon's library, the Bibliothèque Martial Lapeyre will have reduced openings times, namely Mondays and Wednesdays, 1-6pm.
TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO
22 July 1802 (3 Thermidor, An X), François-Xavier Bichat, the man who was deeply to mark the history of medicine, died at the very young age of thirty-one. Surgeon, psychologist, doctor, pathologist, physiologist, anatomist, histologist and therapist, Bichat was interested in every field of medicine and became the father of modern histology and tissue pathology.
23 July, 1802 (4 Thermidor, An X), Toussaint Louverture was imprisoned in the Fort de Joux near Grenoble.
25 July, 1802 (6 Thermidor, An X), the Moniteur published a detailed report on the state of the hospices in Paris: in terms of organisation and management, food and furniture ("every individual has a bed to himself", "straw mattresses have been replaced and bedcovers have been cleaned of grease marks and repaired", "refectories have been built so that the smell of food will not gather in the wards".)
Various improvements had been made regarding treatment, but there also been an attempt to define and classify mental illnesses, under the encouragement of Professor Pinel. The definitions and classification were related to certain treatments and organisation of the space. The Hospice national des femmes (Salpêtrière women's hospital) was considering 5 divisions of patient: sick nurses or assistants, known as the 'Repentantes' (then about 240 in number); 500 paralytics, blind, octogenarian women, known as the 'Grandes infirmes'; 1,900 septuagenarian women; 360 sick women; 200 women with cancer, scrofula or gale; 200 epileptic women not mad; 600 mad women.
Since the month of Floréal, "incurable mad women have been separated from those curable. These two divisions have been subdivided into imbecillic mad women, calm mad women, constantly agitated mad women, suddenly agitated mad women, wild mad women. Grills demarcate the paths, courts and buildings relating to these different states of madness."
During the month of July 1802, in France the price of bread dropped; the quality of the harvests forecast for the Départements of the Somme, the Oise, the Aisne and Seine-et-Oise gave hopes of a further drop in bread prices, particularly in the capital.
Le Publiciste, 8 Thermidor, An X
Next week's letter will be the last before the summer break.
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week!
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
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THIS WEEK:
Journal news
- The Nelson Dispatch, vol. 7, part 11, July 2002
What's on
- Talk: The Man who broke Napoleon's Codes, by Mark Urban
- Talk: Nelson and the Hamiltons in Swansea, Haverfordwest and Cardiff
- Opera: A Sailor's tale
- Concert and talk: Nelson and the Hamiltons: A Salute in words and music
- Commemoration: Nelson day
The monthly titles
- Book of the Month: Napoleon and Wellington, by Andrew Roberts
- This month's picture, Costume ball at the Tuileries Palace, by Carpeaux
- Article of the Month, Napoleon and Saint Helena, 1815-1816, by Roger Morriss
- In the Collectors Corner, the First Consul's glaive, by Boutet
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