Physicians, Surgeons and Health Officers Sentenced to Death by the French Revolutionary Justice (1792-1799): A Statistical and Biographical Study

Abstract

The number and socio-professional categories of the victims of the French Revolution have been the subject of many historical studies since the early nineteenth century. The circumstances of death directly imputable to the French Revolution are numerous: more or less spontaneous massacres (La Glacière Massacres in Avignon in mid-October 1791, September Massacres in Paris in early September 1792), internecine struggles (War in the Vendée, siege of Lyons), suicides, insalubrity of prisons, drawnings of priests in Nantes, wars with many surrounding countries, and judiciary executions. Many historians, Louis Prudhomme in 1797, Charles Berriat-Saint-Prix in 1870, Constant Saucerotte in 1887 and Donald Greer in 1966, among others, attempted to draw the list of all people, including physicians, sentenced to death between 1792 and 1799. This paper aims at updating the list of these physicians in light of recent publications and documents made available on-line by many libraries.

, Surgeons, Health Officers, Revolutionary Justice, Death Penalty, Statistics