René-Nicolas Dufriche Desgenettes

René-Nicolas Dufriche Desgenettes

René-Nicolas Dufriche, Baron Desgenettes (born May 23, 1762 in Alençon , Orne , † February 3, 1837 in Paris ) was a French military doctor.

Live and act

Dufriche Desgenettes was the son of a lawyer; the cleric Charles-Éléonore Dufriche-Desgenettes (1778-1860) was a distant relative. He completed his school days at the Jesuit college in his hometown and then went to Paris to study at the Collège Sainte-Barbe and the Collège du Plessis .

After a short time, Dufriche Desgenettes moved to the Collège de France to study medicine. a. the surgeon Philippe-Jean Pelletan and the anatomist Félix Vicq d'Azyr . He then went to London for some time to attend lectures by surgeon John Hunter . Back in Paris, he studied with Alexis Boyer and Louis-René Desbois de Rochefort . He used his Grand Tour to and through Italy and England to further his medical education and to attend lectures at several medical schools.

In 1791 (→ French Revolution ) Dufriche Desgenettes came back to France. He joined the Girondins ; but during the reign of terror he withdrew to Rouen. In March 1793 he accepted a position as a military doctor and joined the Armée d'Italie , where he was valued for his language and country skills alone. In 1795 he made the personal acquaintance of Napoleon , who later commented very highly on him.

Detail from Bonaparte visits the plague sufferers of Jaffa (1799) , Dufriche Desgenettes in the background

When Napoleon planned the invasion of Egypt in 1798 , he brought Dufriche Desgenettes and made him the chief medical officer of this expeditionary army, and as such Dufriche Desgenettes was a member of the general staff of André Masséna . As a doctor he was also a member of the Commission des sciences et des arts and wrote the Description de l'Égypte .

In mid-September 1801 he returned to Paris with the army and was entrusted there with the management of the military hospital Val-de-Grâce ( 5th arrondissement ). At the same time, Dufriche Desgenettes lectured at the École de Médecine ( University of Paris ) and was a welcome guest in the salon of Anne-Catherine de Ligniville Helvétius .

On Coup of 18 Brumaire (9 November 1799) Dufriche Desgenettes was not involved, but when in 1804 the First Empire had consolidated, Napoleon made him the top physicians (Service de Santé des Armées) of the Grande Armée . As such he took u. a. in battles near Preussisch Eylau (February 7/8, 1807) and Friedland (June 14, 1807). After the Peace of Tilsit (July 7/9, 1807) Dufriche Desgenettes was allowed to vacation in Paris between May and October 1808, and Napoleon refused to leave the army.

When Napoleon was planning his war against Russia in 1812 , Dufriche Desgenettes brought him his staff. He took part in several battles and was particularly able to distinguish himself at the Battle of the Beresina (November 26-28, 1812). During the retreat, Dufriche Desgenettes was captured near Vilnius on December 10, 1812 . When Tsar Alexander I heard about it, he immediately arranged for his release and sent him back to the French troops as an escort with a troop of Cossacks . On March 20, 1813, Dufriche Desgenettes arrived safely in Magdeburg (→ Department of the Elbe ). From there he brought secret dispatches to Napoleon in Paris.

Dufriche Desgenettes took part in the Battle of Paris (March 30, 1814) and after the Treaty of Fontainebleau (April 11, 1814) left all his military offices to rest. When Napoleon left the island of Elba and his rule of the Hundred Days began, he rejoined the emperor. As a military doctor of the Garde impériale , he took part in the Battle of Waterloo (June 18, 1815).

Back in Paris, he renounced Napoleon and supported King Louis XVIII. With effect from July 1 of the same year, he reinstated him as head of the Val de Grâce and appointed him to the Conseil général de santé des armées .

In 1820 Dufriche Desgenettes was accepted into the Académie Royale de Médecine and for ten years King Louis-Philippe I appointed him to the Académie des Sciences . When the monarchy was consolidated again after the July Revolution , Dufriche Desgenettes was elected Mayor of the 10th arrondissement of Paris on November 14, 1830 ; he held this office for four years. At the same time, on March 2, 1832, he was appointed head physician of the Hôtel des Invalides ( 7th arrondissement ) and as such became a member of the Académie de Caen .

René-Nicolas Dufriche Desgenettes died on February 3, 1837 in Paris and found his final resting place on the Cimetière Montparnasse .

Trivia

The writer Alexandre Dumas the Elder described the doctor René-Nicolas Dufriche Desgenettes as "un vieux paillard, très spirituel et très cynique".

Honors

• June 14, 1804 Knight of the Legion of Honor
• 1810 Baron de l'Émpire
• The Rue Desgenettes in the 7th Arrondissement (Paris) was named in his honor
• His name can be found on the south pillar (29th column) of the triumphal arch on Place Charles de Gaulle (Paris)

Fonts (selection)

• Fragmens de médecine militaire . Didot, Paris 1820.
• Essais de biography et bibliographie medicales . Panckoucke, Paris 1825.
• Mélanges de médecine . Panckoucke, Paris 1821.
• Histoire médicale de l'armée d'orient . Paris 1812.
  • German: Historical representation of the disease events in the French army in the Orient. Along with associated medical topographies and tables . Summer, Prague 1812.

literature

• Une autobiography de Des Genettes . In: Le progrès médical. Supplément illustré , No. 12 (1926), pp. 89-91, ISSN  1154-0397
• Philip J. Haythornthwaite: who was who in the Napoleonic wars . Arms & Armor, London 1998, ISBN 1-85409-391-6 .
• Charles Mullié: Biography of the célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850, vol. 1 . Poignavant, Paris 1851.
• André Palluel-Guillard, Alfred Fiero, Jean Tulard : Histoire de Dictionnaire du Consulat et de l'Émpire . Laffont, Paris 2009, ISBN 978-2-221-11421-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Founder of the Brotherhood of Our Lady
2. ^ Translation: "An old libertine, very witty and very cynical".