French influence on the development of medicine in Louisiana

The paper presents a brief survey of the state of medicine in the 18th century with an emphasis upon developments in France. In the early nineteenth century the emergence of the Paris Clinical School made France pre-eminent in medicine. Its leaders emphasized localism, correlated symptoms with postmortem reports, and introduced clinical statistics. They also introduced the stethoscope and the techniques of auscultation and palpation and were the first to recognize that excessive bloodletting, purging and other depletory measures were harmful. The French population in Louisiana continued to look to France for educational and intellectual leadership well into the nineteenth century, and the findings of the Paris Clinical School had an immediate impact upon Louisiana medicine, leading to a clash between the French-speaking physicians who emphasized moderation and good nursing and the English-speaking practitioners who believed in drastic intervention.