Forlenze cured the soldiers of Napoleon's army returning from Egypt, affected by serious eye diseases. He healed renowned personalities such as Jean-Étienne-Marie Portalis, minister of Worship, and the poet Ponce Denis Lebrun, removing a cataract which had been present for twelve years from one of his eyes. Lebrun dedicated to him a verse in his ode called "Les conquêtes de l’homme sur la nature". Napoleon, with a royal decree, gave him the assignment of "chirurgien oculiste of the lycees, the civil hospices and all the charitable institutions of the departments of the Empire", thus Forlenze was sent into the French provinces to treat eye diseases.