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Théodore Tronchin, Doctor to the Stars
In the fashionable female circles of 18th-century Paris, a physician who recommended fresh air, exercise and looser corsets became a celebrated figure.
[[{"fid":"37116","view_mode":"float_right","fields":{"format":"float_right","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Théodore Tronchin, by Galliard after Liotard, 18th century.","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Théodore Tronchin, by Galliard after Liotard, 18th century."},"type":"media","link_text":null,"attributes":{"alt":"Théodore Tronchin, by Galliard after Liotard, 18th century.","title":"Théodore Tronchin, by Galliard after Liotard, 18th century.","class":"media-element file-float-right"}}]]‘He is six-foot tall, wise as Asclepius and beautiful as Apollo.’ Thus did Voltaire describe his friend and personal doctor, the Swiss physician Théodore Tronchin, who was a specialist in women’s diseases and inoculation. His clinic attracted patients from all over the world and his reputation, especially for groundbreaking research on the prevention of smallpox through inoculation, grew so much that the Duke of Orleans, Louis-Philippe I (1725-85), summoned him to Paris to treat his children, the younger Louis-Philippe and Louise Marie Thérèse Bathilde. His success sparked interest in both him and the practice of inoculation among the Parisian aristocracy and his rise to fame meant inoculation became widespread, even if it was adopted more because of the wish to be à la mode than of a genuine desire for prevention.The event that triggered Tronchin’s fame was the inoculation of the duke’s children. The actual causes of his quickly spreading reputation, first in Paris and then all over Europe, however, were his method of inoculating with the smallpox virus, his tendency to emulate the court’s aristocracy and his social presence; in particular, his attendance at the salons.Inoculation, as employed by Tronchin, consists of an injection of tiny amounts of the smallpox virus taken from the pustule of one afflicted with the disease into the superficial layers of the skin to induce immunity in the patient. Vaccination, as developed by the English physician Edward Jenner, on the other hand, is an injection of a sample taken from a cow suffering from cowpox. It is considered safer than inoculation and is the most common method used to fight against many diseases, including smallpox, polio, measles and tetanus.Even if Tronchin was not the first to suggest them, his treatment methods met with particular success because he focused on the doctor-patient relationship. He was a strenuous advocate of a healthy lifestyle and physical wellbeing. He devoted time to the sick, listening to their descriptions of their symptoms; he suggested that they adopt an active lifestyle, take care of their hygiene, spend plenty of time outdoors and follow a diet, so that the body would be able to react fully to diseases and, in particular, to inoculation.Tronchin also ignored the usual detachment expected of doctors, instead displaying friendliness, understanding and sincere concern for his patients’ condition, to the point of becoming their confidant – almost a personal therapist. Such an unusual, innovative approach, together with his affability and his appreciation for the pleasures of life, brought him great popularity in aristocratic circles and among the intellectual and artistic elite of Paris in the second half of the 18th century.Tronchin’s fame increased considerably after 1756, when he became a familiar figure at the royal court, joining the queen for dinner on numerous occasions. By this point, he was known for more than inoculation. His presence at the most influential Parisian salons and parties was due to his charming personality: he was a handsome, stylish man and a lover of the good life. He did not reject the company of women. As the Marquis of Condorcet recalled, in Tronchin’s obituary presented to the Paris Royal Academy of Science in 1782: ‘Mister Tronchin had a pleasant size, a soft and noble figure, an impressive and serene forehead, long and beautiful hair still valorised his countenance.’From the beginning of his career, Tronchin had worked on gynaecological matters and, in time, specialised in typically ‘feminine’ troubles (such as neurosis or maladies des vapeurs) and infant diseases. This brought him into contact with the world of such figures as Madame Suzanne Necker, Madame d’Épinay, Madame de La Ferté-Imbault, Madame de Vermenoux and the Duchess d’Enville. Indeed, there is no doubt that Tronchin was very influential among women. His friend Friedrich Melchior Grimm in his Correspondance littéraire (1756) wrote of Tronchin’s reputation in Paris: ‘All of our women are going to consult him; his door is besieged, and the street where he lives is full of coaches and cars, like the entertainment districts. The multiplied successes of this illustrious doctor are the subject of all our conversations.’Tronchin’s social status did not grant him automatic access to these circles; only the court aristocracy and foreign dignitaries were invited to such gatherings. Magistrates, academics and hommes de lettres were less common (even if savants and scholars were considered en vogue). This access allowed Tronchin to meet a constant stream of new patients whom – not without audacity, given the social context – he recommended follow a more sober lifestyle.Condorcet recalled:Mister Tronchin learnt to renew the air in a sick room; not to condemn pregnant women to an often-disastrous, uncomfortable diet; to give children a healthier education … he banned the constraints and bindings which deform their size, or encourage a weak and unhealthy constitution. He persuaded women that a lazy and sedentary life is one of main causes of the particular diseases in their sex … He treated with diet and exercise rather than by medication and tried to discourage the disgust and the fatigue of them when they were unfortunately needed.The needs of his patients led to a series of novelties, either introduced by Tronchin or inspired by his recommendations, which were the result of many years of research and listening to his female patients’ needs. His suggestion that a sedentary lifestyle could be a significant cause of colon trouble, for example, led to the development of La table à la Tronchin, a kind of precursor of the drafting machine, or the modern ‘standing desk’, which allowed a person forced to spend much time at the table to stand up at it and thus become less sedentary. Such a treatment had already been suggested by renowned doctors, such as the Swiss Samuel-Auguste Tissot and the Italian Angelo Maria Gatti, but it was Tronchin’s endorsement that led to its adoption.The remedies proposed by Tronchin had repercussions on fashion and society. In the second half of the 18th century, the entry ‘Tronchiner’, meaning ‘to take morning walks’, appeared in the French dictionary and Vinaigre à la Tronchin (‘the best way to protect against smallpox and other stinking diseases’), also became widespread. New dresses and hairstyles were created to suit the requirements of the newly active lifestyle of aristocratic women: les robes à la Tronchin, or tronchines, were outfits that allowed ladies to go for a walk and do physical exercises. The bonnet à l’inoculation was a fashionable hairdo, clearly inspired by the innovative medical practice, while the dish encuirassés à la Tronchin evoked the doctor’s banning of women’s corsets, which were supposed to be detrimental to health.Tronchin’s success inevitably led to a campaign of hatred against him. Ammunition for this included his contribution towards making inoculation popular, his being a foreigner, a Calvinist and, not least, his unprecedented success. As Condorcet summarised in his obituary, Tronchin’s sins were: ‘To be foreign, to be innovative and to have success and fame.’ His many patients paved the way for the too-easy accusation of his being a seducer of women and his specialisation in sexual diseases provoked gossip and slander. His colleagues’ jealousy took different forms: Les tronchinades, for example, was a comic poem in which Trochin’s colleagues attacked him for threatening their incomes. Elsewhere they discredited his activities and methods, accusing him of using placebos and raising doubts about the scientific basis of his treatments. Similar attacks came from the Church and from the faculty of medicine at the University of Paris.Jealousy of Tronchin and his success saw the Parisian medical establishment revolt against him, his curing methods and the practice of inoculation. He was labelled a ‘medical pirate’, who practised for money alone, attempted to cure only those he believed capable of recovery and whose fame was due solely to his rejection of both traditional remedies (opium, emetics or quinine) and the most common treatments (cleansing, purgatives and bloodlettings).His most vocal critics were eminent doctors, such as Michel Philippe Bouvard (1711-87) and Antoine Angélique Chomel (1729-1818), who found fault with Tronchin’s empiricism and neo-Hippocratism and with the simplicity of his remedies. Other opponents, such as the professor of medicine Jean Astruc, struck at him indirectly by criticising his inoculation method.While the inoculation of the Duke of Orleans’ children acted as a springboard for Tronchin’s fame, his celebrity was long-lasting and self-reinforcing. Public attention being ephemeral, however, it ultimately shifted towards other celebrity doctors. Tronchin’s name was most connected with the inoculation practice that, after his death, was replaced by the more innovative vaccination. In time, this method, too, was set aside because it was considered ineffective and inefficient. Thus Tronchin’s path to eternal glory was blocked and his name fell into oblivion.Giacomo Lorandi is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and a Fellow of the Swiss National Science Foundation.
from www.historytoday.com
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