The extract from the following letter (sent from Liège on 21 October 1833 addressed by Jean-Marie Calès to his nephew, Godefroy) gives an interesting piece of information about the life he lived in Liège. One can see that the former member of the Convention had not, like so many of his colleagues, repudiated his democratic principles. « To Monsieur Calès, doctor of medicine, in Villefranche-de-Lauragais, through Toulouse, France. My dear friend. Your letter, full of wit and sparkling with gaiety, gives me the greatest pleasure; you remind me of the mischievousnesses of my youth, of which I do not repent; they made me laugh before, why should they make me cry now? I shall never forget that they made me bear without difficulty the misery, which continually heaped on me, that they have softened the bitterness which the exercise of medicine entails with it, a divine art in itself, yet detestable for him who exercises it. The uneducated public, the ignorant confreres, jealous and envious, give a thousand disgusts to the educated practitioner; I know that we can gain by it over all of that; but we feel some anguish, which we bear with difficulty. You tell me that a nobleman has vexed you because you were my parents: that does not astonish me from him; it is a caste so low, so ill-educated, that one can expect of it only the fruits of ignorance and prejudice. I am sure that the idiot who vexed you, if he lost his place, is as flat today as he was arrogant then. I have seen nobles of another flock, such as the Bethune-Sully, the Lagrange, the Nivernais, the Rohan, honoring themselves to be as sentinels at my door, and lavishing upon me the testimonies of the most adulatory sentiments, down to baseness. I’m citing this to prove you that these nobles have no nobility and, as long as this caste will exist, it will be the misfortune of France. I do not wish it to be annihilated, but I would have it put into the inability to harm. Here is my position in Liège. After living in Munich and Basel, in Switzerland, I came to Liège fifteen years ago. The police commissioner Wassin confused me with my brother Chrysostôme [Jean-Chrysostôme Calès, A.N.], with whom he had served, and proposed me to remain at Liège. The plan of the Bourbons was to push us until Siberia, and a safe asylum was, then, a treasure. I found it here. I first occupied myself to make theses for the candidates in medicine, which produced me twelve hundred francs a year. Soon after, a few cures, which made a certain noise, attracted to me a prodigious number of patients, but because I was not a Belgian doctor, I decided to give consultations at my house and I refused to go to see the patients, excepted only if I would be called in consultation by doctors, what happens sometimes. There are no important people who had not come to me yet, and the public has followed their example, which has given me some consideration. As I helped and pleased a lot of people, everyone tries to help me. Everything I do is free; a sober life puts me above any need and with a small income I look like a rich man. Embrace for me my sisters. The eldest [Marie-Étiennette Pujol, born Calès, A.N.] first had the courage to write to me before the end of my exile. I am grateful to her. Justine [Marie-Justine Pujol, born Calès, A.N.], whom I left as a child, always had my friendship. I thank you for giving me news of her. [...] All yours. Calès. A thousand greetings to your wife [Léonie-Alphonsine-Zulmée Calès, born Metgé, A.N.], of which you do not speak and to your little boy [Jean-Jules-Godefroy Calès, born in 1828, then 5 years-old in 1833. A.N.]. » (in « La Révolution Française », Historical review directed by Auguste Dide, Tome X, January–June 1886, Paris, Charavray frères, editors. Available (in French) on the site of Archive.org, p740-743: https://archive.org/details/larvolutionfra10sociuoft
« What is the time when pellagra has claimed the most victims in southwestern France? The details were missing to answer this question back in 1845. The earliest evidence that I had collected was that of M. Gaultier de Claubry, who stated that he had observed a case in the region of the Landes in 1809. « It is, said I, only in 1829, that Mr. Hameau reported the 'Mal de la Teste', that he observed since 1818. It was not until 1845 that we were informed of the existence of the disease in the departments of the Haute-Garonne and Aude where MM. Calés and Roussilhe have been observing it for twenty-three years [1822, N.D.A.]. » p.425: Chapter: Etiology, in « Traité de la pellagre et des pseudo-pellagres » (Treatise on pellagra and pseudo-pellagres, "Work crowned by the Institute of France, Academy of Sciences, meeting of February 6, 1865"), by Théophile Roussel, ed. JB Baillière and son; 1866. Public domain. In French. Read on the Archive.org website: https://archive.org/stream/traitdelapella00rous#page/424/mode/2up
« Treatise on pellagra and pseudo-pellagres » ("Work crowned by the Institut de France, Academy of Sciences meeting of February 6, 1865"), by Théophile Roussel, ed. JB Baillière and son; 1866. Public domain. In French. Read on the Archive.org website: https://archive.org/details/traitdelapella00rous
« When my work on pellagra appeared in 1845, the existence of this disease in the countryside of the former county of Lauraguais had just been revealed by a published article (Journal de med. De Bordeaux, May 1844) by Mr. Dr. Roussilhe, of Castelnaudary, and by an interesting letter addressed to me by Dr. Calès, of Villefranche, which I published in my work. To this information, I added a very imperfect note on the medical topography of Lauraguais. Two years later, having received the mission of studying pellagra in the south of France, I went first to Castelnaudary, where I arrived on 1 September (1847). I went through the part of Lauraguais which belongs to the department of Aude, then that which depends on the Haute-Garonne. Welcomed by MM. Roussilhe and Calès, with a kindness which seventeen years since then have not effaced the memory, I was accompanied by them to their patients. » In « Traité de la pellagre et des pseudo-pellagres » (Treatise on pellagra and pseudo-pellagres, " Work crowned by the Institute of France, Academy of Sciences, meeting of February 6, 1865"), p.383: Chapter: De la pellagre en France (Of pellagra in France); II. – Histoire de la pellagre dans le Lauraguais (Aude et Haute-Garonne) (History of pellagra in the Lauraguais (Aude and Haute-Garonne)), by Théophile Roussel, ed. JB Baillière and son; 1866. Public domain. In French. Read on the Archive.org website: https://archive.org/stream/traitdelapella00rous#page/382/mode/2up
« I will limit myself to reproduce in this respect a page that wrote to me Mr. Calès in 1845. After the categorical confession of impotence [of Therapeutic Agents, A.N.] which has been formulated above in terms so expressive: « I do not pretend, » said the honorable doctor of Villefranche, « that the therapeutic agents have no action; but, forced to accept our patients with their misery, we are confessing our failures. I have obtained satisfactory results only in those who have been placed under the influence of better hygiene.The main means used by us are: baths, blood evacuations, antispasmodics, revulsives and light tonics. We will say a word of each of them:1° The baths, at the beginning of the disease, produce an excellent effect. Perhaps they would stop the progression if they were helped by a complete change in the habits of life.2° The bleeding or the leeches, as soon as the irritation of the gastric mucosa or of the nervous centers appears, are almost always followed by a slight improvement; but they can only be used with great measure, otherwise they would throw the patient into a fatal weakness. Thus, it is by this way that the distinction of the life's forces into acting forces and radical forces finds its application... It seems that in some cases life is in excess, and yet there is a profound innervation which constitutes the first element of the disease.3° The antispasmodics have produced under our eyes no good result.4° The revulsives, applied after slight evacuations of blood, have reduced the cerebral accidents. I used moxas without any success in cases of paralysis.5° Light astringent tonics served me to moderate the diarrhea when the mucilagineux had failed and when any other treatment was inadmissible.« Besides, added Mr. Calès, all these resources will be powerless, if they are not employed in the early days; they will be completely useless, if you do not change the conditions in which the patient is placed ... In a word, if you do not run a more generous blood in your veins, you will always turn into a vicious circle and you will not expect anything from your care and your efforts. »One of the merits of Mr. Calès is, in my eyes, to have understood, one of the first among us, that in the treatment of pellagra, the doctor can not do everything: « The part of the administration is rather large, he was saying, let's hope it will prove being human and foresighted, as soon as we will clearly point out the disease to it, and that the studies of some men of merit will have enlightened the administration on the means of remedying it. » in « Traité de la pellagre et des pseudo-pellagres » (Treatise on pellagra and pseudo-pellagres), p.527, Chapter: Thérapeutique, by Théophile Roussel, ed. JB Baillière and son; 1866. Public domain. In French. Read on the Archive.org website: https://archive.org/stream/traitdelapella00rous#page/526/mode/2up
in « Ledru-Rollin and the Second French Republic », page 281, Alvin Rosenblatt Calman (1922), Publisher: New York, Columbia University. In English. Read on the website of archive.org : https://archive.org/details/ledrurollinsecon00calmuoft
Two letters of Edgar Quinet to Dr. Jules Calès in « Lettres d'exil à Michelet et à divers amis », Publisher: Calmann Lévy (1886).A) Condolence letter (8 August 1868) written from Plans de Fresnière: Volume III, p. 440 read online & B) Letter (29 December 1873) written from Versailles: Volume IV, pp. 440–442 read onlinearchive. Public domain. Read online on the website of "the Internet Archive" (Digitized by Google)
See « Godefroi Calès » in « Biographie nationale des contemporains rédigée par une société de gens de lettres » (National biography of contemporaries written by a society of men of letters), under the direction of Mr. Ernest Glaeser, Editors: Glaeser and Co., Paris (1878). p. 85. Public domain. Identifier: ark: / 12148 / bpt6k5861239f. Source: National Library of France, Digital Collections Department, 2008-232271. Available in French on Gallica's website: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5861239f/f91.item.r=Cales
« Essai sur la pellagre observée à Corfou » (Essay on the pellagra observed in Corfu), Chapter 6: Prophylaxie. Traitement., By C. Prétendéris Typaldos, Athens, Hermès printing works, 1866. Public domain. In French. Identifier: ark: / 12148 / bpt6k57239112. Source: National Library of France, Department of Science and Technology, 8-TD134-46. Read on the Gallica website: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k57239112
« Lettres de Jean-Jules Calès à Edgar Quinet et à Mme Edgar Quinet (1868–1873) » (Letters of Jean-Jules Calès to Edgar Quinet and Mme Edgar Quinet (1868–1873)) by Pierre Arches, in the Bulletin de la Société archéologique, historique littéraire & scientifique du Gers (January 1992), pp. 224–236. Bibliothèque nationale de France. Public domain. Read online on the website of Gallica: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k65770312/f226
« Godefroi Calès » in « Biographie nationale des contemporains rédigée par une société de gens de lettres » (National biography of contemporaries written by a society of men of letters), under the direction of Mr. Ernest Glaeser, Editors: Glaeser and Co., Paris (1878). p. 85. Public domain. Identifier: ark: / 12148 / bpt6k5861239f. Source: National Library of France, Digital Collections Department, 2008-232271. Available in French on Gallica's website: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5861239f/f91.item.r=Cales
« [...] Has the city of Villefranche, in Haute-Garonne, retained the memory of Godefroy Calés who, born in Saint-Denis on 21 March 1799, played such an important role in the municipal destinies and carried out such a beautiful radical propaganda in the region. He was the nephew of a conventional dead man in exile, the son of a republican sub-prefect. An outstanding doctor who had published a still famous treatise on pellagra, he had studied at Montpellier and had settled at Villefranche. His fellow citizens, in saluting the victory of the Three Glorious, had appointed him in 1830 commander of the National Guard. In 1848, a municipal councilor, he proclaimed the Republic at the Town Hall and became mayor, then deputy to the Constituent Assembly. Ledru-Rollin had enlisted him in the ranks of the Mountain, and after having fought against the Empire, he had formed at Villefranche the secular and democratic propaganda to which so many good doctors of the last century associated themselves. [...] » by Jammy Schmidt, Deputy of Oise, Former Minister. in « DE 1815 A LEDRU-ROLLIN – HIPPOLYTE CARNOT », Le Radical, Sunday, 11 May 1930. Public domain. Identifier: ark: /12148/bpt6k7622794h. Source: National Library of France, Department of Law, Economics, Politics, JOD-210. Available in French on Gallica's website: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k7622794h/
catalogue.bnf.fr
in « Histoire du protestantisme dans l'Albigeois et le Lauragais, depuis la révocation de l'Edit de Nantes (1685) jusqu'à nos jours, par Camille Rabaud (président honoraire du consistoire de Castres, lauréat de l’académie française) » (History of Protestantism in the Albigeois and the Lauragais, from the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) to the present day, by Camille Rabaud (honorary president of the consistory of Castres, laureate of the French Academy)), by Camille Rabaud (1898), Publisher: Fischbacher, Libraire-éditeur, rue de Seine, 33, Paris. Public domain. Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library of France), Department Philosophy, History, Human Sciences, 8-LD175-334. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb34054736v
books.google.com
Sylvie Aprile (2000) « Deuxième République et le Second Empire : 1848–1870 » (Second Republic and the Second Empire) Pygmalion. pp.79–80. In French. Read online: https://books.google.com/books?id=3-NnAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA79
openedition.org
journals.openedition.org
Jacqueline Lalouette, « La politique religieuse de la Seconde République », Revue d'histoire du XIXe siècle (The Religious Policy of the Second Republic), [Online], 28 | 2004, posted on 7 April 2008, accessed 30 September 2016. URL: https://journals.openedition.org/rh19/619; DOI: 10.4000 / rh19.619
« What is the time when pellagra has claimed the most victims in southwestern France? The details were missing to answer this question back in 1845. The earliest evidence that I had collected was that of M. Gaultier de Claubry, who stated that he had observed a case in the region of the Landes in 1809. « It is, said I, only in 1829, that Mr. Hameau reported the 'Mal de la Teste', that he observed since 1818. It was not until 1845 that we were informed of the existence of the disease in the departments of the Haute-Garonne and Aude where MM. Calés and Roussilhe have been observing it for twenty-three years [1822, N.D.A.]. » p.425: Chapter: Etiology, in « Traité de la pellagre et des pseudo-pellagres » (Treatise on pellagra and pseudo-pellagres, "Work crowned by the Institute of France, Academy of Sciences, meeting of February 6, 1865"), by Théophile Roussel, ed. JB Baillière and son; 1866. Public domain. In French. Read on the Archive.org website: https://archive.org/stream/traitdelapella00rous#page/424/mode/2up
« De la pellagre » Théophile Roussel, [Thèse de Médecine, Paris, 1845], Paris, Imp. Rignoux, 1845. In French.
« Treatise on pellagra and pseudo-pellagres » ("Work crowned by the Institut de France, Academy of Sciences meeting of February 6, 1865"), by Théophile Roussel, ed. JB Baillière and son; 1866. Public domain. In French. Read on the Archive.org website: https://archive.org/details/traitdelapella00rous
« When my work on pellagra appeared in 1845, the existence of this disease in the countryside of the former county of Lauraguais had just been revealed by a published article (Journal de med. De Bordeaux, May 1844) by Mr. Dr. Roussilhe, of Castelnaudary, and by an interesting letter addressed to me by Dr. Calès, of Villefranche, which I published in my work. To this information, I added a very imperfect note on the medical topography of Lauraguais. Two years later, having received the mission of studying pellagra in the south of France, I went first to Castelnaudary, where I arrived on 1 September (1847). I went through the part of Lauraguais which belongs to the department of Aude, then that which depends on the Haute-Garonne. Welcomed by MM. Roussilhe and Calès, with a kindness which seventeen years since then have not effaced the memory, I was accompanied by them to their patients. » In « Traité de la pellagre et des pseudo-pellagres » (Treatise on pellagra and pseudo-pellagres, " Work crowned by the Institute of France, Academy of Sciences, meeting of February 6, 1865"), p.383: Chapter: De la pellagre en France (Of pellagra in France); II. – Histoire de la pellagre dans le Lauraguais (Aude et Haute-Garonne) (History of pellagra in the Lauraguais (Aude and Haute-Garonne)), by Théophile Roussel, ed. JB Baillière and son; 1866. Public domain. In French. Read on the Archive.org website: https://archive.org/stream/traitdelapella00rous#page/382/mode/2up
« I will limit myself to reproduce in this respect a page that wrote to me Mr. Calès in 1845. After the categorical confession of impotence [of Therapeutic Agents, A.N.] which has been formulated above in terms so expressive: « I do not pretend, » said the honorable doctor of Villefranche, « that the therapeutic agents have no action; but, forced to accept our patients with their misery, we are confessing our failures. I have obtained satisfactory results only in those who have been placed under the influence of better hygiene.The main means used by us are: baths, blood evacuations, antispasmodics, revulsives and light tonics. We will say a word of each of them:1° The baths, at the beginning of the disease, produce an excellent effect. Perhaps they would stop the progression if they were helped by a complete change in the habits of life.2° The bleeding or the leeches, as soon as the irritation of the gastric mucosa or of the nervous centers appears, are almost always followed by a slight improvement; but they can only be used with great measure, otherwise they would throw the patient into a fatal weakness. Thus, it is by this way that the distinction of the life's forces into acting forces and radical forces finds its application... It seems that in some cases life is in excess, and yet there is a profound innervation which constitutes the first element of the disease.3° The antispasmodics have produced under our eyes no good result.4° The revulsives, applied after slight evacuations of blood, have reduced the cerebral accidents. I used moxas without any success in cases of paralysis.5° Light astringent tonics served me to moderate the diarrhea when the mucilagineux had failed and when any other treatment was inadmissible.« Besides, added Mr. Calès, all these resources will be powerless, if they are not employed in the early days; they will be completely useless, if you do not change the conditions in which the patient is placed ... In a word, if you do not run a more generous blood in your veins, you will always turn into a vicious circle and you will not expect anything from your care and your efforts. »One of the merits of Mr. Calès is, in my eyes, to have understood, one of the first among us, that in the treatment of pellagra, the doctor can not do everything: « The part of the administration is rather large, he was saying, let's hope it will prove being human and foresighted, as soon as we will clearly point out the disease to it, and that the studies of some men of merit will have enlightened the administration on the means of remedying it. » in « Traité de la pellagre et des pseudo-pellagres » (Treatise on pellagra and pseudo-pellagres), p.527, Chapter: Thérapeutique, by Théophile Roussel, ed. JB Baillière and son; 1866. Public domain. In French. Read on the Archive.org website: https://archive.org/stream/traitdelapella00rous#page/526/mode/2up
« [...] Has the city of Villefranche, in Haute-Garonne, retained the memory of Godefroy Calés who, born in Saint-Denis on 21 March 1799, played such an important role in the municipal destinies and carried out such a beautiful radical propaganda in the region. He was the nephew of a conventional dead man in exile, the son of a republican sub-prefect. An outstanding doctor who had published a still famous treatise on pellagra, he had studied at Montpellier and had settled at Villefranche. His fellow citizens, in saluting the victory of the Three Glorious, had appointed him in 1830 commander of the National Guard. In 1848, a municipal councilor, he proclaimed the Republic at the Town Hall and became mayor, then deputy to the Constituent Assembly. Ledru-Rollin had enlisted him in the ranks of the Mountain, and after having fought against the Empire, he had formed at Villefranche the secular and democratic propaganda to which so many good doctors of the last century associated themselves. [...] » by Jammy Schmidt, Deputy of Oise, Former Minister. in « DE 1815 A LEDRU-ROLLIN – HIPPOLYTE CARNOT », Le Radical, Sunday, 11 May 1930. Public domain. Identifier: ark: /12148/bpt6k7622794h. Source: National Library of France, Department of Law, Economics, Politics, JOD-210. Available in French on Gallica's website: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k7622794h/
