Thomas Jefferson Papers

To Thomas Jefferson from Philippe Reibelt, 13 June 1805

From Philippe Reibelt

Baltimore le 13 Juin 1805.

Monsieur!

Un Pharmacien et Medecin—generalement instruit, digne d’etre recû en bonne Societè, parlant les trois principales langues vivantes, qui a quittè la rive gauche du Rhin par le même Motif que Moi, c’est a dire, puisque Nous prevoions L’Empire se mettre a la place de la Republique—et que j’ai amenè avec Moi en çe pays, a le projet, de fonder a CharlottesVille (pres Monticello) une pharmacie montée sur le pied francais, Anglais et Allemand.

Personne ne sauroit prononcer plus decisivement sur la Question: si les proprietaires environantes (grands et petits) pourroient y desirer un tel etablissement, et s’il y a probabilitè, qu’il reussiroit—et certainement personne n’est mieux disposèe, de diriger et proteger un Litterateur Republicain expatriè, que Vous, le Seul Chef des principes liberaux sur le vaste Univers.

J’ose donc Vous demander en Graçe, de me dire, quelle en est Votre persuasion?

C’est dans cette même Supposition, que je prend la libertè, de Vous annonçer, qu’un autre Compatriote de Moi, Dtr. Konz de Trêves—un homme des mêmes Qualités Morales, scientifiques et politiques va s’etablir de la même manière a Richmond. — et de le recomander a Votre protection, comme un eléve du Vieux Franck au grand hopital a Viênne.

L’un et l’autre seront par mon entremise fournis de la pharmacie de Mr. Du Catel d’ici, qui est sous tous les rapports le pharmacien le plus distinguè de çeux, qui sont immigrè de la france, et particulierement de S. Domingue.

J’ai l honneur de Vous presenter mes bien profonds et Sinceres hommages.

Reibelt.

Editors’ Translation

Baltimore, 13 June 1805

Sir!

A physician and pharmacist—broadly educated, worthy of being welcomed into good society, speaking the three major living languages, who left the left bank of the Rhine for the same reason I did, anticipating that the empire would supplant the republic, and whom I brought with me to this country—seeks to found in Charlottesville near Monticello a pharmacy on French, English, and German practices.

No one can decide this question better than you. If the neighboring owners, large and small, wish such a business and it is likely to succeed, surely no one is more qualified to oversee and protect an expatriated republican man of letters than you, the one leader of liberal principles in this vast universe.

I therefore dare ask for your opinion.

In the same spirit, I take the liberty of informing you that another of my compatriots, Dr. Konz from Trier, a man with comparable moral, scientific, and political qualities, is going to found a similar establishment in Richmond. I recommend him to your protection. He is a student of the elder Frank at the great hospital in Vienna.

I will supply both of them from Mr. Ducatel’s pharmacy here. He is by far the most distinguished of the pharmacists to have immigrated from France, especially from Saint-Domingue.

I have the honor of offering you my very deep and sincere regards.

Reibelt

RC (DLC); endorsed by TJ as received 14 June and so recorded in SJL.

Vieux Franck: that is, Johann Peter Frank, a medical educator and innovator in the field of public health, whose son was also a prominent doctor (Erna Lesky, ed., A System of Complete Medical Police: Selections from Johann Peter Frank [Baltimore, 1976], ix-xiv; Otto M. Marx, “Descriptions of Psychiatric Care in Some Hospitals during the First Half of the 19th Century,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 41 [1967], 208-9).

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