Experiences and knowledge exchanged in medical consultations by post (16th-18th centuries)

Consultations by post make up together a significant part of the medical literature, especially between the 16th and 18th centuries and bring irreplaceable testimonies on how physicians could follow up their patients from far away, in relation with local practitioners who were at their patients' bedside or who could visit them on a regular basis. These testimonies are of a scientific nature since they show how illustrious physicians diagnosed, predicted and prescribed, such as Fernel, Chirac and later on Barthez and Tissot, or less famous practitioners such as Le Thieullier, for instance. They are of a literary nature since every physician has his own writing style, and the lay out of their letters often respects codes. They are of an anthropological nature in the sense that a conception of man, ill, with his character, his own life, is rendered under the form of narratives.