The Enlightenment at Sea: Medical Scientists in the Baudin Expedition, 1800-1804

Abstract

The intellectual explosion that is called the Enlightenment was a great period in French medical history: epidemiology flourished, surgery became a science, and clinical teaching moved to the hospital bedside. The Revolution gave powerful impetus to these developments. The exploratory expedition led by Nicolas Baudin included four naval medical officers whose education had prepared them to participate in scientific research as well as to care for their shipmates. Also, among the expedition's scientists was Franois Pron, who had studied medicine in Paris. Though rated as a zoologist, he was accepted as a medical consultant during the voyage. Off the Australian coast, Baudin's crews encountered scurvy, and were also attacked by dysentery when they landed in Timor. The expedition had been equipped with drugs thought to be effective against these diseases; nevertheless, there were many deaths, chiefly from dysentery. When the expedition returned to France, two of the medical officers published doctoral theses on scurvy, and a third published a thesis on dysentery. Pron also wrote on medical aspects of the voyage. From these publications, one can judge the merits and limitations of contemporary French naval medicine. Though Baudin's doctors were much less aware of the causes, prevention and treatment of scurvy than their British contemporaries, they nevertheless showed impressive clinical skills and keen interest in medical research.