[The French Revolution and mental troubles 1789-1799].

Are wars and political strife factors in the cause of mental diseases? For instance what do we know about the French Revolution? Contemporary writers of memoirs are untrustworthy, whether opponents or supporters. We have neither morbiditiy nor mortality statistics nor accurate diagnostics, for the patients in public hospitals or private mental homes. A few cases are described for some mystical or political lunatic women, and some Jacobin leaders.

[The doctor in the city].

In his own town, the physician plays an important part in the public organizations of public health, in the commissions that grant permits and pensions, in the private charity societies, for the collection of epidemiological informations, etc. Unfortunately his place is small in the hospitals management, and he is not a member of the board for health insurance councils. In the State, he has to be a member of the consultative commissions for developing a health policy, and a public health system cannot work without his complete support.

[Examples of foreign countries].

In France we are not well aware of the health of people in situation of poverty: they have not resources enough to care of oneself, not knowing the services of social welfare, and not identified by these services. 1) Some studies in Great Britain and in U.S.

[Felix Vicq d'Azyr, founder of the Academy of Medicine (1748-1794)].

Vicq d'Azyr (1748-1794) was the son of a norman physician. He was graduated at the Paris university and obtained quickly a brilliant renown and career. During his whole life he continued studies on human and animal anatomy.

[Population inside hospitals: its evolution from old Maristans to modern hospitals].

Islamic foundations in the near and middle east in the VIIth to XIIIth centuries had two missions: the accommodation and the cure to sick people, and the training for future doctors. At the same time in the Christian world, hospitals were only pious inns. They became cure institutions for the poor in the XVIIth century, and devoted to teaching in the XIXth.

[Léopold Ollier (1830-1900)].

Born in a small village of Ardèche, Ollier became, still in his youth, chief surgeon at the Hôtel Dieu of Lyons and later professor of surgical clinic at the Faculty. His experimental works carried on during his lifetime showed the role played by the periosteum in bone regeneration and established the rules of the success or failure of homo and heterografts. Utilizing clinically the periosteum capacities, he codified the osteo-articular resections in many traumatic and inflammatory diseases of the members, ensuring the superiority of the resections on the amputations and desarticulations.

[Medicine and the European community on January 1st 1993].

The European Community single act will come into effect on January 1st 1993 in the twelve countries belonging to the Community. It will have many outcomes in the health field. Some aspects concerning, in the name of the free circulation of goods and persons, are raised: certifications and training harmonization, drugs, food products, and all kinds of chemicals, regulations, standards for diagnosis and treatment equipment, blood products, methods of sampling, manufacturing and selling, etc.

[The practice of surgery in France. Current state, fears for the future].

After a study of the number of surgeons practising in France, the author presents data which may have a poor effect on the future of the specialty: increasing constraints, reduced numbers of interns, decreased income and disappearance of general surgery, etc. The discipline is poorly prepared for future technical innovations. In the near future the population may no longer be served by an adequate number of surgeons, due to lack of interest in the specialty.