Un palliatif en vers. L’Épître au docteur Alfred G*** sur l’espérance, considérée dans l’exercice de la médecine (1811) de Jean-Marie Caillau (1765-1820)
In 1811, the poetic academy of Toulouse awarded an epistle about hope in medical practice, by Jean-Marie Caillau, a now unknown physician who combined medicine and writing. This article provides contextualizing and close reading. It presents Caillau’s works and reputation, and highlights how he defined himself as a doctor-writer. Then it focuses on the didactic epistle, in which hope is regarded as a moral palliative, or a soothing and comforting illusion that the empathetic clinician prescribes to incurable, moribund and suffering people. The study of the text reveals the significant use of the peritext, the strong connection between medical discourse and poetical devices, and the praise of an eloquent physician at the patient’s bedside. By correlating hope and eloquence, Caillau embodies and promotes the dual figure of the doctorpoet. This article thus explores the fruitful and sometimes challenging interplay between medicine and poetry during the early 19th century.
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