Berlan, Hélène: **Faire sa médecine au XVIIIᵉ siècle.** Recrutement et devenir professionnel des étudiants montpelliérains (1707-1789). Montpellier, Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée, 2013. 656 p. € 42.– ISBN 978-2-36781-008-9

This study aims to provide an exhaustive record of the student population of the University of Medicine of Montpellier between 1707 and 1789. The author states as her goal providing detailed information on students' geographic origins, age, degrees completed, and other factors, and on that basis assessing the importance of the Montpellier faculty in the eighteenth century. The book is divided into six parts, devoted, in turn, to student registrations; geographical origins; length of course of study; baccalaureate theses; Montpellier's standing in comparison with other medical faculties; and achievements of Montpellier graduates, including their participation in the development of Enlightenment medical science and in the Revolution.

A great deal of the information provided in this study is based on counting. To name only some of the types of data included, the study indicates numbers of students registered, first overall and then by division of the academic year, decade, selected years, and geographic origin; numbers of students who matriculated in pairs or groups of three; numbers of students who completed their degrees versus those who abandoned their studies; the age of students on entering and leaving the faculty; numbers of students who had studied elsewhere; numbers of baccalaureate theses produced, both overall and classified according to subject matter and publisher; numbers of students linked familial ly – overall and by different kin relations (father-son, uncle-nephew, fraternal); numbers of students who practiced in their native towns, nearby, or in distant locales; numbers of communications sent by Montpellier practitioners to the Société Royale de Médecine – overall and classified according to subject matter; and numbers of Montpellier practitioners elected to the successive revolutionary assemblies. The author has established a computerized database containing this information, much of which is also presented in charts, graphs, and maps contained in the book’s appendices. On some topics, comparisons are made between figures the author has herself devised from archival documents held at the Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire de Médecine de Montpellier and elsewhere (extensive use is made, for example, of surveys of medical practitioners undertaken in the eighteenth century, including the *Dictionnaire de l’an X* and selected departmental inventories). In comparing figures from the eighteenth to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the author makes heavy use of Marcel Gouron’s *Matricule de l’Université de Médecine de Montpellier, 1503-1599* (1957) and *Les universités européennes du XVIᵉ au XVIIIᵉ siècle* by Dominique Julia and Jacques Revel (1989).

Although most of the book focuses on presentation of numbers (often accompanied by examples of specific students or practitioners selected to illustrate the author's themes), roughly the last quarter of the book ranges widely across much-studied issues in the general medical history of the eighteenth century – the work of the *Société royale de médecine*, medical participation in Masonic lodges, medical work focused on women, the introduction of inoculation, the French reaction to Mesmerism, and the struggle against charlatanism. In each instance the author purports to situate the work of Montpelliérains in relation to that of other students and practitioners in the kingdom. Unfortunately, these discussions largely neglect the work of other scholars, even those who have closely studied the history of Montpellier and its region
(Montpellier's *Société royale des sciences* is discussed, for example, with no reference to Elizabeth R. Kindleberger's study, the most detailed investigation yet done of that body, and the Revolution's impact on hospitals is considered without reference to Colin Jones's work on that problem). As secondary works listed in the bibliography are seldom cited in the text, the author's own discussions proceed in a vacuum and frequently entail assertions that lack even minimal evidence. To take but one example: the author repeatedly asserts (70, 103, 115, 216, 222, 233, 281, 366) that by century's end the instruction offered at Montpellier was inadequate and that students were "obligated" (115) to complete their studies in Paris. In this judgment she ignores most of the scholarship on the powerful impact of the teaching for which eighteenth-century Montpellier is best known – the vitalism of Bordeu and Barthez, disposed of here in a few pages (277–278). In discussing students who continued their studies in Paris (for once, no numbers are supplied), she does not consider the social and economic advantages that could accrue to such migrants but simply assumes that they sought to escape a stultified intellectual atmosphere (she repeatedly cites the well-known judgment of J. E. Gilibert). A critical factor – the advantages Montpelliérains had long enjoyed in the capital as court physicians – is never mentioned, despite extensive study of this theme in recent scholarship.

The most disappointing feature of this book is its conclusion. Reaching the end of this 500-page text, the reader eagerly anticipates a case for the significance of the findings. No such discussion is provided. The conclusion summarizes some selected facts such as the typical age of students and then exhorts other scholars to repeat – for all the medical faculties of France and throughout Europe – the counting procedures that she herself has undertaken. Why they should do so is not clear. The laborious work of compiling figures and rendering them in charts, maps, and graphs has not, so far as I can see, substantially changed our picture of the Montpellier medical faculty of the eighteenth century. The author concludes that Montpellier had become the medical faculty “par excellence” in that it attracted students from throughout the kingdom and (if to a lesser extent than in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) from abroad; that it was responsible for more medical degrees than any other faculty in the kingdom; that in sheer numbers it dominated French medical practice of the era. All of these facts were known before, and the value of the detailed figures offered on the author’s subsidiary themes needs to be set forth. In sum, the most important part of such a study – stating clearly why it matters – has not been done.

Elizabeth A. Williams, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater (USA)

Breslaw, Elaine G.: **Lotions, Potions, Pills, and Magic. Health Care in Early America.** New York; London, New York University Press, 2012. 251 p. Ill. £ 23.99. ISBN 978-0-8147-8717-5

Dans ce travail de synthèse, Elaine G. Breslaw se propose deux objectifs. Elle entend
dresser le panorama de l'expérience américaine de la santé du XVIIe au XIXe siècle
à travers les conditions de vie et les usages thérapeutiques. L'auteure veut par ailleurs
démontrer l'échec de la médecine officielle à améliorer de quelque manière que ce
soit la santé des populations. Outre qu'avec leurs confrères européens ils partagent