Adams Papers
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From John Adams to Etienne Louis Geoffroy, 20 December 1782

To Etienne Louis Geoffroy

Paris ce 20 Xbre. 1782.
Hôtel du Roi, au Carrousel.

Monsieur

Je viens d’ecrire à M. de Lassonne1 que Je m’etois adressé à la societé Royale de Medecine par la voye de M. Vicq d’Asir son secretaire perpetuel, pour etablir une correspondence entrè la Societé Royale et le College de Medecine de Boston dans la nouvelle Angleterre. M. Vicq d’Asir m’a fait l’honneur de venir me voir et de m’apporter une reponse très flateuse.2

Permettez moi, Monsieur, de vous prier de renouveller mes remercimens à votre Compagnie, en attendant que le College de Medecine de Boston les lui fasse lui meme.

Je suis avec respect, / Monsieur / votre très humble / & très obeissant Serviteur.

John Adams.

Translation

Paris, 20 December 1782
Hôtel du Roi, au Carrousel

sir

I have just written to Mr. Lassonne1 informing him I had approached the Royal Society of Medicine through its permanent secretary, Mr. Vicq d’Azyr, with a view to establishing a correspondence between that society and the Boston college of medicine in New England. Mr. Vicq d’Azyr paid me the honor of a visit and brought a very pleasing reply.2

Please thank your society again for me, sir, pending the time when the Boston college of medicine does so itself.

I am respectfully, sir, your very humble and very obedient servant

John Adams.

RC in John Thaxter’s hand (Bibliothèque de l’Académie Nationale de Médecine); internal address in JA’s hand: “Monsieur Geofroy Docteur Regent / de la Faculté de Medicine de Paris.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 110.

1. Joseph Marie François de Lassone was a noted French surgeon, personal physician to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and founder of the Royal Society of Medicine (Hoefer, Nouv. biog. générale description begins Jean Chrétien Ferdinand Hoefer, ed., Nouvelle biographie générale depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu’à nos jours, Paris, 1852–1866; 46 vols. description ends ). JA’s letter to Lassone was virtually identical to this one (Bibliothèque de l’Académie Nationale de Médecine; LbC, APM Reel 110).

2. JA’s effort to form a connection between the Royal Society and the newly established Massachusetts Medical Society was owing to Cotton Tufts’ request in a letter of 26 Sept. (AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, and others, Cambridge, 1963–. description ends , 4:386). For the results of JA’s effort, see Geoffroy’s reply of 22 Dec., and the 3 Feb. 1783 letter from Félix Vicq d’Azyr, both below.

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    Source Project
    Adams Papers
    Title
    From John Adams to Etienne Louis Geoffroy, 20 December 1782
    Author
    Adams, John
    Recipient
    Geoffroy, Etienne Louis
    Date
    20 December 1782

    Reference

    Cite as
    “From John Adams to Etienne Louis Geoffroy, 20 December 1782,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-14-02-0087. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 14, October 1782–May 1783, ed. Gregg L. Lint, C. James Taylor, Hobson Woodward, Margaret A. Hogan, Mary T. Claffey, Sara B. Sikes, and Judith S. Graham. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008, pp. 142–143.]

    More between these correspondents