[The countess of Ségur and health]

More known for her celebrated novels for children than by her preoccupations for health, the countess of Ségur born Rostopchine (1799-1874) has considered this topic in her book: La santé des enfants (Children's health), her novels and her correspondance. The book published in 1855 was didacted by the painful experience of a mother having lost a child. It constitutes an important testimony of medical practice in the 19th century. The novels contain medical episodes (rabies, drownings, bolting horses). In her correspondance written in an incisive and amusing way, she mentions various familial diseases, gives her advice and makes up her mind for or against a physician or a treatment. A capable and passionate woman, this author who was the most read after Balzac was not only satisfied in forming morally and educating her young readers but was also careful, as she was it in her own family, to give an advice in the field of hygiene and health.