2011/09/01 by Irving Kushner · 1 citation
Medicine · Arts and Humanities · #Medicine and Dermatology Studies History #History of Medicine Studies #Medicine #Rheumatology #Internal medicine #Emergency medicine
paper · pdf · doi:10.3899/jrheum.101320
openalex publication_date 2011/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
In the early hours of the morning of August 31, 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, was a passenger in a Mercedes-Benz being driven at high speed through the fashionable 8th Arrondissement of Paris. Passing through a tunnel along the Seine River, the vehicle ran into a wall. An ambulance took her to the decidedly unfashionable 13th Arrondissement, where she was pronounced dead about 2 hours later at La Salpetriere Hospital. La Salpetriere, or saltpeter works (intriguing name for a hospital!), the largest hospital in Paris, has a fascinating history. About 400 years ago, an arsenal for the manufacture of munitions was relocated to the present Salpetriere site from across the river. Since gunpowder is largely a mixture of sulfur and saltpeter (KNO3), the site was referred to as the saltpeter works. This appellation has been applied to the successive institutions that have stood on this site, and persists to this day. Under Louis XIV, who reigned from 1643 to 1715, a large proportion — estimated as high as 10% — of the Paris population of 400,000 were homeless beggars. They were not just underprivileged, they had nothing: no money, no honest way to earn money, nothing to eat, nowhere to live. They were dressed in rags. Of course they had some alternatives: crime, begging, prostitution, and suicide. All these alternatives were employed. Clearly, this situation had the potential for major social disorder. At the same time, the middle of the 17th century saw the rise of concern for the poor, spearheaded by the efforts of St. Vincent de Paul. His influence, combined with the perceived need for greater social stability, prompted the King in 1656 to remove undesirable members of society from the streets by sheltering them in grand settings1. His motivation: “to put an end to …