Philippe Pinel, 1745-1826.

  • Francis Tiffany
Date:
[1898]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Philippe Pinel, 1745-1826. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    his father could do nothing to help him. So he sup- plied his own scant needs through lessons in mathe- matics. It was little outwardly he required. His mind his kingdom was ; and, with the passion of a universal student, he felt in no haste to shorten the days of acquisition and get into practical life. A pro- found classical scholar and endowed with poetic sensi- bilities of the rarest kind, much of his time was spent over his yEschylus, Sophocles, Pindar, and Plato, as well as over Virgil and Horace. He read deeply into history, ancient and modern, and mastered the English language. His geometrical studies he pushed so far and in so original a way as later to command the admi- ration of experts. Thus not till the mature age of twenty-nine did he receive his doctorate of medicine. To open up to himself still wider opportunities, I'incl later on changed his residence to Montpcllier, then one j of the most famous schools of medicine in France. ] There he attempted to begin professional practice, but j was again thrown back for support on lessons in math- f ematics. However, nothing daunted, he absorbed him- / self in studies in comparative anatomy and physiology ' and on the application of scientific analysis to the ^ classification of human diseases. So far nothing gave promise of the daring innovator he was ultimately to become,— the successful practitioner consulted from