accomplishing this they intensified at the same time the jealousy which the physicians as a class felt toward them, a jealousy which repeatedly manifested itself in the form of downright persecution. The data for a complete account of this persecution, that persisted through centuries, are lacking, and even if I possessed them I should not care to devote the time that would be required for a proper presentation of the subject. It is pleasant, however, to be able to record the fact that these plucky barbers never entirely lost courage, but fought on, year after year, until they eventually succeeded—with the help of a strongly sympathetic public—in making the St. Côme Medical School the nursery of some of the best surgeons in France during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was here, for example, that Paré, Guillemeau, Thierry de Héry and other men of distinction obtained their early training, and it was doubtless through their influence that some of the wealthy patients whom they had treated successfully, were induced to contribute liberally to the support of the school. The final event in the history of this institution was the complete overthrow of the opposing physicians and the merging of the two surgical schools—that of the regular Faculty and the St. Côme School—into one, under the direction of de Lapeyronie, of whom I shall now furnish a brief sketch.
François de Lapeyronie.—François de Lapeyronie was born at Montpellier on January 15, 1678, and he enjoyed the privilege of receiving a most careful preliminary education. He was only seventeen years of age when the academic degree which corresponds to our Master of Arts was bestowed upon him. As the next step he visited Paris for the purpose of perfecting his knowledge of surgery, the branch of science in which he was specially interested; and upon his return to Montpellier he began giving instruction in anatomy and surgery. In a short time he was chosen Surgeon-in-Chief of the Montpellier Hôtel-Dieu. In 1714 he was called to Paris to take charge of the Duc de Chaulnes, whose malady had not yielded to the treatment adopted by the surgeons of that city; and in this case the measures which he employed proved so efficacious that de
