French medicine and its evolution from the XVIII to the XIX century in its search far its natural place among sciences

Abstract

French medicine during the transition period from the XVIII to the XIX century was fully aware of its conjectural character and thus, intended to attain, by different means, the rigour and the certitude that other sciences had already reached. While, according to some physicians, that goal would be achieved following the model chosen by those very sciences, others supported the view that, propped up by the foundations set up by the other sciences, medicine should look for a path of its own. Not an unconsiderable number of scholars went on insisting that medicine was something more than a «natural science», and expressed their intent to elaborate a «science of men».