[Dr Vangeon, a.k.a. Henri Ghéon, a writer from Brie and associated founder of the Nouvelle Revue Française]. / Le docteur Vangeon, alias Henri Ghéon in écrivain briard cofondateur de la NRF, en 1909.

A medical doctor graduated in 1901, Henri Vangeon (1875-1944) was early known as a writer with the name of Henri Ghéon. In poetry, he joined the group of the symbolists lead by Mallarmé and Verhaeren. His activity grew with publishing reponsibility for the review 'Ermitage, followed by the NRF founded in 1909 by Gide, Schlumberger and soon after with Gallimard. Mainly devoted to novels and plays, the NRF rapidly succeeded. During the war, Ghéon acted in the health serv- ice. Then; he returned to the christianfaith, and lead his own way for creating numerous religious plays, honorated in Canada in 1938. In june 1944, he died in Paris.

[The Formulaires of Magendie (1821-1840) of the chemical pharmacy to pharmacology]. / Les Formulaires de Magendie (1821-1840) de la pharmacie chimique à la pharmacologie.

With nine consecutive issues published from 1821 to 1836, the Formulaire concepted by Magendie as a usual tool for the medical precriptions, was first dedicated to the new chemical pharmaceuticals, mainly the pure alcaloids, strychnine, quinine and morphine, extracted from raw products. As well he included mineral chemicals, hydrocyanates, iodine and bromide, all supported by newly achieved works, from Pelletier, Caventou and others. Magendie perfectly skilled in animal experimentation, developped and standardized the as far as to evaluate the activity and safety degrees of these new components. It clearly anticipated the evaluation plan determined by the law for the registration of the new drugs in the twentieth century.

[Meyerbeer, spa curist, biography of J. -F. Struensee, physician and man of the modernist state]. / Meyerbeer, curiste à Spa, biographe de J.-F. Struensee médecin et homme d'état moderniste.

In 1757, Struensee (1737-1772) graduated in medicine at Halle-Saale university, as his father a high dignitary in the lutherian church was, and supported by the presence of his grand-father the physician and scientist Samuel Carl. The family moved to Altona where he was nominated as physician in the city council. Then he largely dealt with medical and social items, for orphans and disabled, and attempted to prevent infectious deseases, small pox, typhus, scabies ans dysenteric syndroms. For sure when he practised his investigations on water samples with microscopy, Struensee acted as a pioneer to suspect microrganisms to be responsible for infectious diseases. Later on, he started his medical service dedicated to the Danish king Christian VII. This part of his life demonstrated the ambitious but highly capable man he was when running the whole government load for Denmark, in a liberal and advanced way. We link the drama of his death when he was condamned, to the symphony composed by Meyerbeer (1791-1864), known as an incidental music for Michael Beer's play Struensee, 1846.

[Drugs and pharmacists for the army, 1800-1815]. / Des médicaments et des pharmaciens pour l'armée, 1800-1815.

SUMMARY During this period, the authority was exerted by Parmentier, as the head and chief pharmacist for the French armies. For the military hospitals scattered all over Europe, he organised the pharmacies services rules, with technical and financial concerns. The first aid devices on the battlefield included a special box for pharmacy containing ressucitation and siccative items for the wounds, and immediately available for the surgeon's use. The qualified pharmacy staff exhibited large variations, from 200 to 1.100 people in 1812.

[Medicinal plants and symbols in the medieval mystic altarpiece]. / Les plantes médicinales et symboliques dans les jardins mystiques des retables médiévaux.

The medieval mystic altarpiece towers above the altar table. It is linked to the evocation of a religious mystery beyond our faculty of reasoning. Symbolism of an enclosed garden evokes the image of the Heavenly Garden isolated by a wall from the rest of earthly world. In this mystic chiefly Rhenan altarpiece the enclosed garden is that of Virgin Mary who in the Middle Ages was likened to the spouse in the song of songs. The Blessed Virgin is painted with flowers, lily, rose, violet, lily of the valley. Most of these are medicinal plants in order to implore a faith healing for the believers. All in all about fifty plants are showed on Rhenan altarpieces and on 14th century mystic altarpieces almost contemporary of Issenheim's altarpiece, some Italian, some Rhenan.

[The plants in the Issenheim's altarpiece]. / Les plantes du retable d'Lssenheim.

On the decorated panels an altar, the so-called "retable d'Issenheim", in Colmar, several painted plants can be easily identified.

[The 14 plants in Issenheim's altarpiece. An updated pharmaco-chemical approach]. / Les quatorze plantes du retable d'Issenheim. Une approche pharmaco-chimique actualisée.

Fourteen vegetal species were identified by Kühn in 1948 among which scrophualaria, veronica, lamium and vincetoxicum. These exhibit antigangrenous, antiinflammatory and antimicrobial activities due to iridoid components, mainly aucubin, catalpol and harpagosid.

[Bouchardat and hygienic medicine]. / Bouchardat et la médecine hygiénique.

Bouchardat (1806-1886) got his medical degree in Paris in 1832. As chief pharmacist at the Hôtel-Dieu (Paris), he set up chemical analysis for blood and urine. He inaugurated medical analysis and biochemistry, investigating the digestive process on dogs. In 1852, he was made as professor for hygiene at the Faculty of medicine. Then, he taught for fourty years, publishing extensive works on pharmacology, toxicology, nutrition and agronomics. He gave a modern view on individual and collective needs for food that he considered as the main aspect of hygiene. He was a member of the Académie de médecine and the Société centrale d'agriculture.

[Henry Arrault, before the Geneva convention, promotes voluntary ambulances with his friend George Sand]. / Henri Arrault, précurseur de la convention de Genève, promoteur des ambulances volantes et ami de George Sand.

Born in Joigny, Arrault's family had close relationship before and during the Napoleonic period with medicine and the army. From 1825 in Paris, he owned a pharmacy shop, and created several types of first-aid boxes and devices, containing clean dressings. He acted as an official supplier for the french armies for surgery and pharmacy materials. In 1861 after the Crimean war, as he presented a new plan for improving the rescue of wounded on the battle fields, he called the French authorities upon the opportunity to ratify a specific international convention insuring the neutrality to the wounded and to the medical staff on the battle field. In 1864, Dunant succeeded in that way by creating the << Red cross >>, after setting up a large diplomatic arrangement. As Arrault exhibited sympathy for the republican party, the imperial regime kept him aside of any consideration. With the support of the non conformist writer George Sand, he tempted in 1865 to make his anteriority known and accepted. Therefore, a bitter dispute opened with Dunant. During the international exhibitions, he presented his materials in London 1862, Paris 1867 and Vienna 1873. As ageing, he acted as a member of the city council of Paris among the radical republicans and died in 1887.

[Jacques Clarion (1776-1844), professor of l'Ecole de pharmacie de Paris]. / Jacques Clarion (1776-1844), professeur de l'Ecole de pharmacie de Paris.

Engaged in military campaigns from 1793 to 1797, he then studied medicine in Paris, as well as pharmacy, specialised in chemistry and botany. Supported by Deyeux and Corvisart, he was nominated as pharmacist of the emperor. From 1819 to 1844, he taught botany at the School of pharmacy of Paris. In 1823, the authority gave him a second chair for the medical botany at the Faculty of medicine, but after the 1830 revolution, he was dismissed. He mainly worked in taxonomy, contributing to several publications with Palisot and de Candolle for Graminaceae. He was a member of the academy of medicine.

[The amazing career of a homeopath, philanthropist, Fourierist, Benoît-Jules Mure. (1809-1858)]. / L'étonnante carrière d'un homéopathe philantrope fouriériste, Benoît-Jules Mure. (1809-1858).

The authors evoke the difficulty of dealing with the life and work of Benoît-Jules Mure who was a homeopathic scientist and a keen specialist on propaganda. He was also an adept of Charles Fourier and he used almost his fortune to the spreading of homeopathy and at time, the improvement of social life. Thus he tried to settle humanitarian colonies in Brazil and later in Egypt, Nubian and Sudan in order to improve their fashion of life. He was hit by tuberculosis which led him discover homeopathy and by his strength of character lie led the idea of his mission in favour of his convictions. He was very angry with the official medical organisation and at last he never has been recognized as a médical doctor. The authors underline that his life and his work have probably left some definite marks in the South America let alone the birth of Socialism.

[The pharmacist Henri Arrault (1799-1887) and his work for army ambulances, precursor of the convention of Geneva and George Sand's friend]. / Le pharmacien Henri Arrault (1799-1887), conseiller de Paris, promoteur des ambulances volantes, ami de Sand et rival de Dunant.

Established as a community pharmacist outside Paris in Monmartre, Arrault was a creative man. From 1830, he supplied the French army with medical equipments. Several army surgeons among his close relatives provided him a special skill. He is known to have anticipated the convention of Geneva when he published in 1861 a brochure in which he asked the authorities to adopt an international rule for neutralising the wounded people and the health staff on the battlefields. He engaged a controversy against Henri Dunant in which George Sand gave him a large support. Its eclectic activities were as well connected to politics as he belonged to the republican party. In 1871, he was elected at the council of Paris.

[Bellini's death in 1835 and his biography]. / Vincenzo Bellini, son décès à Paris en 1835, étude biographique et médicale.

Bellini died all of a sudden in 1835 whereas he was young and in good health. An amoebic intestinal disease and a liver abscess have been proved by the post-mortem examination. In fact the artist was living alone in a remote house outside Paris in Puteaux. His death was very painful as he did not receive any correct treatment which might have saved his life. Thus the circumstances of his death remain a puzzle for the historians.

[An original painting by Nicolas Eekman (1889-1973)]. / Les médicaments d'origine biologique à travers le monde, fresque originale peinte en 1961 par Nicolas Eekman (1889-1973).

Born in Brussels, Eekman lived in Paris during the twenties in relationship with Mondrian, Chagall and Ernst. His style kept the realistic and fantastic features of Bosch and Breughel. In 1960, Pr Griffon proposed to him the order of an original painting dedicated to the biological medicines and pharmaceutical research, destinated to the decoration of his son's pharmacy recently opened at Paris-Orly airport. This presentation analyzes the genesis of this work.

[Denis Ballière (1729-1800)]. / Denis Ballière (1729-1800), pharmacien, litterateur et theoricien de la musique.

Born in Paris in 1729, Ballière got his graduation from the University of Sorbonne as bachelor of arts in 1746. His uncle Charles Delaisement practised as apothecary in Rouen and Ballière obtained there his mastership in 1756. Concomitantly, he composed the poetry and music of several opéras-comiques in the style of pastorales, which were performed with success in Rouen and Paris theaters. He was a fine writer and a real erudite. As well, his capacity in mathematics lead him to set up a theory applicated to both acoustic and music. In 1764 was published his Théorie de la musique in which he analysed the works of Descartes, Sauveur, Wallis, Tartini, Rameau, d'Alembert and Diderot. Rousseau greeted this work with consideration. When his uncle died in 1768, he fully engaged in the pharmaceutical profession. Since 1754, he had been a member of the Académie de Rouen, in which he was scientific secretary in 1769 and president in 1784, publishing different works among them its Essai sur les problèmes de situation - regarding the probability calculus - can be mentioned. In 1779, he translated into French John Ellis's book on Mangostan. He died in Rouen in 1800.

[Emétine and quinine, a therapy to rescue Bellini in 1835]. / Emétine et quinine, une thérapie pour sauver Bellini en 1835.

At the moment when his operas got a European celebrity, Vincenzo Bellini born in 1801 rapidly died in September 1835 after a three weeks digestive illness, with mainly dysenteria. Young and healthy, this unexpected event questioned the authorities in Paris. The post mortem examination showed that the colonic mucosa was covered by numerous ulcers, and that a large abcess existed in the liver. All other parts of the body were absolutely sound. These results came out from the autopsy performed by Adolphe Dalmas (1799-1844), professor agrégé at the Faculty of medicine of Paris, formerly member of the special committee in charge of fighting the cholera in 1831 and 1832, who studied its medical aspects during the epidemic attack in Russia, Poland, Germany and Great Britain. With a wide knowledge in the field of the intestinal pathology, his conclusions established that the death came from an inflammation of the bowel, excluding clearly any touch of cholera or poisoning. Nowadays, it is obvious that this dysenteria syndome associated to such anatomic disorders would belong to the chronic amebic disease. Probably contaminated in 1828, Bellini developed a severe episode in 1830, necessitating a long rest during several months, spent at Moltrasio along the side of the Lake of Como. At the time, he composed La Sonnambula and Norma. In 1833 after staying in London from April to August, he came to Paris preparing a new work I Puritani (The Puritains). At summer time, he usually suffered slight recurring episodes, that he treated by applying vesicatories. For frequent periods, he lived outside Paris in a villa standing along the Seine in Puteaux rented by his British friends the Levys. Early in September 1835, these symptoms came again and and suddenly worsened with pain, fever and loss of rest at night. Deserted and lonely as the Levys often left the villa, his critical condition exhibiting tremendous sufferings led to death on the 23rd of September. During the final days, he was not granted any relevant medical support, except the poor cares given by the Italian physician Montallegri, not authorised at that time to practice in France. As emetine and quinine since 1822 were both available as pure alcaloids, produced by the pharmacist Joseph Pelletier, it is assumed that Bellini might have recovered after an intensive treatment implementing these substances by oral, local and rectal routes (enemas and suppositories). At that time, apart from the academic teaching inherited from Broussais, the tropical practitioners currently used them in the treatment of dysenteria and tropical liver abcesses (Annesley, Segond and Dutroulau), as decocted ipeca roots and cinchona barks. Later on when the amebic disease has gained its proper nosography, the clinicians underlined the dangerous and unpredictable issues of the hyperacute hepatic syndromes, unexpected and occurring by apparently healthy individuals. By 1960, its treatment was still obtained by the emetine derivatives.

[Prosecution of Mélanie Hahnemann in 1847 at the court of Paris: illegal practise of pharmacy and medicine]. / Le procès de Mélanie Hahnemann en 1847 à Paris, exercice illégal de la pharmacie et de la médecine.

Recently married, the Hahnemanns came to Paris in 1835. The great man, 80, was authorised to practice in France. His wife Mélanie always assisted him in writing prescriptions, and in recruiting patients. When he died in 1843, she was continuing to practise assisted or not by a physician, Deleau or Croserio. A young pharmacist, Charles LeThiére, lived close to her as her adoptive son, grandson of the famous painter Guillaume Guillon-LeThière who was the director of the French Academy of Fine Arts of Rome at the Villa Medici, grandson as well of the Roman pharmacist Giuseppe Meli. Early Charles remained orphan and was educated by Mélanie. In 1844, he obtained his pharmaceutical graduation at the Ecole supérieure de Pharmacie de Paris. In 1847, she was accused of illegal practising of medicine and pharmacy. She claimed that she held the degree of doctor in homeopathy granted to her by the Academy of Pennsylvania. The court condemned her on the medical side considering that she earned money without legal certification in medicine. But as the drugs were prepared by a pharmacist, and delivered free of charge to the patients, no sentence was pronounced against her neither against LeThière. However, the court tempted to object that LeTière did not meet all the legal requirements for practising his pharmaceutical activity, especially aruging that he did not own an open shop of pharmacy, and that he did not declare his activity to the authorities in Paris. This point underline the fact that during the XIXth century the French law (21 germinal An XI- 1803), obliged the starting drug industry to be in dependence of the shops of pharmacy opened to the public, owned by a graduated pharmacist. As defender Mrs. Hahnemann chose the quite known solicitor Chaix d'Estange. Many testimonies came for justifying her capability of medical prescribing from artists, officers, writers and several aristocrats. From abroad came the supports of American doctors, Hempel, Hering and Hull. But the core question motivating her sentence came from the medical lobby acting in Paris led by the professor Orfila. Among the adepts of the homeopathy themselves, raised division and rivalry, but all considering that Mélanie Hahnemann's behavior was criticable. The court fined her for hundred francs that she paid. Then, she kept the circle of her friends and continued in medical counselling.