Secret Remedies and the Medical Needs of the French State: The Career of Adrien Helvétius, 1662–1727
| cam.issuedOnline | 2016-11-29 | |
| dc.contributor.author | Rivest, Justin | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2018-09-29T06:08:47Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2018-09-29T06:08:47Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2016-11 | |
| dc.description.abstract | This article explores the relation between proprietary drugs and state interests in early modern France by following the career of the medical entrepreneur Adrien Helvétius (1662–1727). Helvétius began as a private practitioner, but his successful remedy against dysentery and his access to the world of the French court enabled him to become a pharmaceutical monopolist and large-scale pharmaceutical contractor supplying the French army, and later, state-funded poor relief efforts. Rather than seeing his distribution system as an instance of proto-public health or a simple case of military “spinoff” into civilian medicine, I argue that his various roles are an outgrowth of “court capitalism” and that he tapped into existing infrastructures of military and charitable care to find a new market for his drugs. In this view, the state emerges as a bulk consumer purchasing drugs from a private entrepreneur, distributing them to civilian and military populations that do not have access to the urban medical marketplace. Cet article décrit le rapport entre les spécialités pharmaceutiques et les intérêts d'État de l'Ancien Régime en analysant le parcours de l'entrepreneur médical Adrien Helvétius (1662–1727). Helvétius a débuté sa carrière comme médecin privé. Le succès de son remède contre la dysenterie et sa proximité avec la cour française lui ont aidé à obtenir un monopole et à devenir fournisseur à grande échelle de médicaments pour l'armée française et, plus tard, pour les efforts d'assistance sociale financées par l'État. Au lieu de considérer son système de distribution comme un exemple de proto-santé publique ou d'un dérivé de médicine militaire employée dans le domaine civil, je maintiens, d'une part, que les divers rôles qu'Helvétius occupa durant sa carrière sont le résultat de ce qu'on pourrait appeler un “capitalisme de cour,” et d'autre part, qu'il a exploité l'infrastructure militaire et du soin charitable. Dans cette perspective, l'État achetait les médicaments en gros d'un entrepreneur privé et les distribuait ensuite à des populations civiles et militaires qui eux avait peu d'accès au marché médical urbain. | |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.17863/CAM.30291 | |
| dc.identifier.eissn | 2292-8502 | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 0008-4107 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/282928 | |
| dc.language | en | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.publisher | University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) | |
| dc.publisher.url | http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/cjh.ach.51.3.002 | |
| dc.subject | 4303 Historical Studies | |
| dc.subject | 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology | |
| dc.subject | Generic health relevance | |
| dc.subject | 3 Good Health and Well Being | |
| dc.title | Secret Remedies and the Medical Needs of the French State: The Career of Adrien Helvétius, 1662–1727 | |
| dc.type | Article | |
| prism.endingPage | 499 | |
| prism.issueIdentifier | 3 | |
| prism.publicationDate | 2016 | |
| prism.publicationName | Canadian Journal of History | |
| prism.startingPage | 473 | |
| prism.volume | 51 | |
| rioxxterms.licenseref.startdate | 2016-11 | |
| rioxxterms.licenseref.uri | http://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved | |
| rioxxterms.type | Journal Article/Review | |
| rioxxterms.version | AM | |
| rioxxterms.versionofrecord | 10.3138/cjh.ach.51.3.002 |
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