François Vincent Raspail,Born on January 25, 1794 in
Carpentras, Vaucluse, as the son of a Catholic believer and an
innkeeper and freethinker, Raspail died at Arcueil near Paris on
January 7, 1878 as dean of the chamber of deputies. He began his
professional life as a self-taught botanist and chemist, turning
later into a hygienist of national renown. But he also assumed
the lifelong stance of a challenger to all men in power, be they
monarchist politicians, university-trained scientist, physician-
or pharmacist-members of the faculty, or policemen in the service
of governments that restricted freedom of speech or assembly.
The poor and humble formed his constituency and to them he
preached a mixture of hygiene and socialism, an innovative sort
of medical self-help with the motto "hygiene preserves from
medicine." Over his family he exercised the tyranny of the
patriarch; to his followers he turned into an apostle.
An early advocate of the microscope in the study of tissues, he focused on the cell which he perceived as a chemical laboratory. He practiced iodine staining and the frozen technique and belonged among the founders of the cell theory. (Essai de chimie microscopique, 1830; Nouveau système de chimie organique, 1833). The revolution of 1830 turned his attention to politics. Jailed as president of the Society of the Rights of Man, he tended sick fellow prisoners. He believed they were attacked by infinitely small parasites and he found in camphor an effective antidote. Once freed, he turned to compounding camphorated medications and published a Manuel annuaire de la santé that became a best seller for almost a century. He published a short-lived newspaper, Le Réformateur (1834-1835), then Histoire naturelle de la santé (1843), and defended several persons accused of murder with arsenic, among them Madame Lafarge.
An unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of the republic, he
came in fourth, with 36,900 votes (ahead of Lamartine). Earlier
implicated in the demonstration of May 15, 1848, he was tried at
Bourges and condemned to six years in prison. When his wife died
in 1853, Napoleon III commuted the sentence to exile. Returning
from exile in 1862, he was elected deputy from Lyon in 1869 and,
under the Third Republic, became the symbol of republicanism.
The longest boulevard in Paris carries his name.
Exposition Raspail: Catalogue raisonné
rédigé par Simone Raspail, Lise Dubief, avec la
collaboration de Marianne Carbonnier (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale, 1978).
G. Duveau. Raspail. (Paris: Presses Universitaires
de France, 1948).
D. Ligou. Raspail ou le bon usage des prisons.
(Paris: Martineau, 1968)
J. Poirier and C. Langlois. Raspail et la vulgarisation
médicale. (Paris: Vrin, 1988)
J. Scoenfeld. Raspail et la médecine. (Paris:
Les Trois Monts, 1933)
L. Velluz. Raspail un contestataire au XIXè mesiècle. (Pèrigueux: Franlac, 1974)
D.B. Weiner. Raspail Scientist and Reformer. (New
York and London: Columbia University Press, 1968)
JGC revised this file
(http://www.ohiou.edu/~chastain/rz/raspail.htm) on
Cotober 25, 2004.
Please E-mail comments or suggestions to chastain@www.ohiou.edu
© 1998, 2004 James Chastain.
Dora B. Weiner
Bibliography