Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff

Dr Pierre-Carl Potain

Also known as: Dr. Pierre-Charles Potain, Dr Pierre-Carl Potain, Pierre Carl Édouard Potain, Dr Potain, Potain, sous-Potain, Potain II

People · Doctors
Show in diary 29 mentions
Bronze relief plaque showing the bald, bearded profile of Dr Potain facing right, with his name cast beneath
Pierre Carl Potain (1825-1901), bronze portrait plaque by Alexandre Charpentier, before 1901, Metropolitan Museum of Art Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access (CC0), via Wikimedia Commons

Who he was

Pierre Carl Édouard Potain (born in Paris, 19 July 1825; died in Paris, 5 January 1901; buried in Montparnasse) was the leading Parisian clinician of Marie's day in diseases of the heart and lungs. The page's old title "Pierre-Charles" is a variant: his birth certificate reads "Carle", and the diary's own footnotes give "Carl". He took his doctorate in 1853, became chef de clinique at the Charité under Bouillaud in 1858, médecin des hôpitaux in 1861 (Saint-Antoine, Necker), professor of medical pathology and then of clinical medicine from 1875, and worked at the Charité from 1882 to 1900. He was a member of the Académie de médecine and the Académie des sciences. In 1889, with Étienne-Jules Marey, he improved the blood-pressure instrument of von Basch by replacing the water with air. (Fr. Wikipedia, "Pierre Potain", https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Potain.)

Marie and Potain

Potain is Marie's physician from the autumn of 1880 until her last weeks. Chronologically:
  • 10 September 1880 (089.0500). Dr Fauvel, who had found nothing a week earlier, now finds the bronchi affected and advises consulting Dr Say or Dr Potain. Marie is calm, even pleased: "Je ne tiens pas à guérir."
  • 24 October 1880 (090.0164). First appointment: "à trois heures nous avons rendez-vous avec Miranda chez le Dr Potain, le célèbre, le grand." She is already discouraged and hiding her deafness; her aunt thinks it is an ear blocked by a cold.
  • 8 November 1880 (090.0204). A letter quoted in the diary says: "le Dr Potain s'y connaît et il n'est pas effrayé du tout."
  • 21 November - 26 December 1880 (090.0257, 090.0311, 090.0386, 090.0457). Visits at his rooms and at home. On 5 December he wants her in the south until March; on 16 December Charcot and Potain hold a consilium and "déclarent nettement qu'il me faut partir pour le midi". She refuses to leave her family's company on the journey.
  • 9-17 January 1881 (090.0559, 090.0562, 090.0581, 090.0617). Potain declines to treat her since she does not follow his orders; then stops coming: her illness "n'a paraît-il besoin que d'air et de soleil, il est honnête le Potain et ne veut pas me bourrer de médecines inutiles."
  • 28 January 1881 (091.0020). He comes again; she amuses him with "bavardages insensés".
  • 20 May 1881 (092.0027-0029). The day she is anxious over the Salon jury's look at Breslau's picture, Potain's visit is the cover for her tears. She asks him to exaggerate her condition so she can stay in Paris rather than go to Russia: "le poumon droit est malade".
  • 21 November - 21 December 1881 (093.0386, 094.0025, 094.0041, 094.0100). A new illness; Potain again prescribes the south. He cannot come daily and sends a junior doctor, whom Marie calls "le sous-Potain" (she is as harsh on Charcot's replacement). On 21 December he allows her to go out in furs if there is little wind.
  • 28 December 1882 (097.0300). Reflecting on her fears, she notes that Potain "n'a jamais voulu dire que les poumons étaient atteints", using only the usual words, bronchi, bronchitis.
  • 22 June - 3 July 1884 (104.0622, 104.0730, 105.0016-0019). Feverish and spitting blood, she resolves to see "Potain II" (the phrase is not explained; probably her second round of treatment with him) and on 3 July is at his rooms at seven in the morning. He sends her to Eaux-Bonnes (Eaux-Bonnes). She unseals his letter to the spa doctor: it records "une excavation au sommet droit" and calls her the most undisciplined and imprudent patient in the world. His optimism ("il est si optimiste") convinces her she must be very ill.
  • 9-18 October 1884 (106.0156, 106.0173, 106.0179, 106.0186). Her last weeks. "Mes médecins sont deux jolis imbéciles. J'ai appelé Potain et me suis remise entre ses pattes. Il m'a guérie une fois. Il est bon, attentionné, honnête." He visits every few days and sends his assistant in between; on 16 October she notes that he "n'a plus besoin d'argent et s'il vient plusieurs fois c'est qu'il s'intéresse un peu à moi". On 18 October: "Je ne vais pas mieux." She died on 31 October 1884.

Related entries

Sources

Wikipédia FR, "Pierre Potain"; Wikimedia Commons / Metropolitan Museum of Art, Charpentier plaque (CC0). Diary paragraphs as cited.

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