-
Introduction
Julius Hirschberg (1843-1925), Pro-fessor of Ophthalmology at
the University ofBerlin, published Geschichte der Augen-heilkunde
[History of Ophthalmology] in se-rial editions in the Graefe
SaemischHandbuch der Augenheilkunde between1899 and 1918. Over many
years, the authorhad developed personal friendships withmany
ophthalmologists and scientiststhroughout the world. He devoted
much ofhis historical writings to innovators and dis-seminators of
German concepts and tech-niques which he termed “Die Reform
derAugenheilkunde” [The Reform of Ophthal-mology]. Important
advances of the Reformhad included the introduction of
ophthal-moscopy by Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) and iridectomy
for acute glaucoma byhis mentor, Albrecht von Graefe
(1828-1870).
As Hirschberg described in hisGeschichte, one of his esteemed
friends andcolleagues was the German-born and edu-cated Édouard
Meyer (1838–1902), likewise aprotégé of von Graefe.1 After three
years ofwork in von Graefe’s clinic, Meyer departedBerlin for Paris
on January 13, 1863, bring-ing modern, up-to-date German concepts
andpractices to France. In a glowing letter of in-troduction, von
Graefe rejoiced in statingthat Meyer had mastered
“parfaitementtoutes les branches de l’ophtalmologie.”
Summaries of Meyer’s distinguishedcareer and his many
accomplishments maybe found in Hirschberg’s writings and a vari-ety
of other sources; salient details will bementioned below. This
paper will further con-sider some aspects of Meyer’s family and
per-sonal life, particularly those relating to thegenealogy of
Meyer’s wife (Madame LéonieEsther Meyer, née Cohen) whose
genealogyas a Rothschild was misstated by Hirschbergin a footnote
in his Geschichte. The emenda-tion herein will also highlight a
possible fa-milial connection of Meyer’s wife with thefamous French
general, Maxime (de Nimal)Weygand (1867–1965).
Édouard MeyerBasic details of Meyer’s personal life
are found in an obituary written by his col-league and close
friend, Henri Dor (1835–1912), in the Revue générale
d’Ophtalmologie(Lyon) which had been co-founded and co-edited by
Meyer and Dor in 1882.2 Anotherobituary which appeared in the
ophthalmicliterature was written by Hirschberg in hisjournal,
Centralblatt für praktische Augen-heilkunde.3 From Dor we learn
that ÉdouardMeyer was born in Sandersleben in the Ger-man
principality of Annhalt-Dessau (Saxony)on November 13, 1838 into a
family of modestmeans. The Jewish faith of the family, andthe first
names of his parents and many sib-lings were not mentioned. Meyer
had oftenrecounted a story from his youth wherein he
1 Hirschberg, Julius. Geschichte der Augenheilkunde[History of
Ophthalmology]. In Theodor Axenfeld andAnton Elschnig (eds.).
Graefe Saemisch Handbuch dergesamten Augenheilkunde. Berlin: Julius
Springer, 1918,vol 15, pt 1, §1267. III. Eduard Meyer, pp
497-499.
2 Dor, H. “Nécrologie: Édouard Meyer.” Revue
généraled’Ophtalmologie 1902; 21: 385–390.3 Hirschberg, Julius.
Eduard Meyer. Centralblatt fürpraktische Augenheilkunde 1902; 26:
285–286.
27
A Footnote in Hirschberg’s History of Ophthalmology:
The Rothschilds and Ophthalmologist Dr. Édouard Meyer
David M. Reifler*
*David M. Reifler, MD, FACSMichigan State University College of
Human Medicine, 3535 Lake Eastbrook Blvd. SE, Grand Rapids, MI,
USA, 49546.Email: [email protected].
Hist Ophthal Intern 2016, Vol.2: 27-38
-
set aside money earned from tutoring inorder to purchase candles
for personal stud-ies in his room at night, apparently duringthe
course of his primary education in Dessauand his university studies
at the Universityof Berlin.
Meyer’s medical studies includedwork in von Graefe’s clinic in
1859 even be-fore he received his M.D. degree from the uni-versity
on October 13, 1860, and he remainedwith von Graefe for
post-graduate trainingthrough 1862. Von Graefe was only ten
yearsolder than Meyer and had begun his practiceof ophthalmology on
November 1, 1850 (atage twenty-two) in an inconspicuous houseon
Behrenstrasse in Berlin, soon thereafterreceiving some of the first
available ophthal-moscopes from von Helmholtz of Königs-berg.4 Von
Graefe achieved a position ofpreeminence in ophthalmology within a
shorttime; two of his notable students, Louis deWecker (1832-1906)
and Richard Liebreich(1830-1917), were not far ahead of Meyer inthe
Berlin clinic and in preceding Meyer toParis to establish
practices. Hirschberg statesthat of the three, “only E. Meyer
receivedGraefe’s complete compassion.” Von Graefe’srecommendations
carried much weight andhe furthermore had many personal contactsin
Paris where he had sojourned for twentymonths during his own
post-graduate studiesincluding time spent with the
German-bornophthalmologist Jules Sichel (1802-1868).According to
Dor’s aforementioned obituaryof Meyer, the young émigré worked
diligentlyto pass additional doctoral examinations inParis,
receiving his degree on February 27,1864 with a 105-page thesis
entitled, “Dustrabisme et du succès de la ténotomie.”
Beginning soon after his French cer-tifications in 1864, Meyer
began teachingcourses at the École pratique and in
clinicalconferences at his clinic on the rue de
l’Anci-enne-Comédie. He later taught in the clinicsof the
Dispensaire Furtado-Heine where hewas head of ophthalmology and
where he reg-ularly published annual reports. Along withhis
colleagues, de Wecker and Liebreich,Meyer’s presence and teaching
in Parishelped to disseminate the concepts of von
Graefe. At this early point in his career,Meyer further
published an illustrated, 400-page French translation of his
mentor’s text-book, Clinique ophtalmologique par A. deGraefe (1866)
which Hirschberg described asa “meritorious service.”
In 1865, in the midst of establishinghimself in Paris, Meyer
successfully answeredthe call of a military physician-colleague
tovisit a Parisian barracks and treat an epi-demic of trachoma,
resulting in the emperorconferring upon him the Cross of the
Legionof Honor at the young age of twenty-seven.When Meyer was
presented to the emperor,the latter reportedly stated « Si je vous
avaissu aussi jeune, je vous aurais fait attendre. »[If I knew you
were so young I would havehad you wait]. Despite his youth, Meyer
wasalready showing signs of heart disease - diag-nosed as
“hypertrophie du cœur” - and at amilitary-medical physical
examination of July16, 1866, he was officially exempted from
mil-itary service. Thereafter, over the course ofmany years, Meyer
was unable to shake theimpact of this diagnosis and, on more
thanone occasion, he told his friend Dor that hewas counting on him
to raise his children.
The Rothschilds, Édouard Meyer, and His Wife
A footnote in Hirschberg’s Geschichterecounts an anecdote about
Meyer and “deralte Rothschild” [the old Rothschild] presum-ably in
reference to the founder of the Frenchbranch of the famous banking
family, BaronJames Mayer de Rothschild (1792–1868).However, by the
time this final installment ofthe Geschichte was published, even
EdmondJames de Rothschild (1845-1935), theyoungest son of “der alte
Rothschild,” wasseventy-three years old. The footnote readsas
follows in the original German and anEnglish translation,
respectively:
Der alte Rothschild, der in Kleinigkeiten sehrsparsam war, nahm
den Arm seines Augen-Doktors Eduard Meyer, und, indem er ihmsagte,
« das wird Ihnen nicht schaden », ginger mit ihm über die
Boulevards spazieren.Übrigens hatte E. M. in der
Rothschild’schenFamilie seine Lebensgefährtin gefunden.
[The old Rothschild who was quite parsimo-
4 Snyder, Charles. “Dr. Albrecht von Graefe in Behren-strasse
will treat free of charge the eye diseases of thepoor.” In Our
Ophthalmic Heritage. Boston: Little,Brown and Company, 1967, pp
13‒17.
28
-
nious in little affairs, took the arm of his eyedoctor Eduard
Meyer, and told him « this isnot going to harm you » while taking
him fora promenade on the boulevards. Meyer’s wifewas a member of
the Rothschild family].5
This curious footnote raises severalquestions.
- What was the place of the rendezvous be-tween Meyer and Baron
Rothschild,the date of this promenade, and thecontext of their
conversation? - Did the conversation involve ca-reer advice such as
Meyer’s even-tual purchase of the practice ofJules Sichel which
soon providedMeyer with an enormous volume ofpatients? - Had there
been a similar,earlier connection between Sicheland Baron
Rothschild who wereboth born in Frankfurt am Main? - As Sichel
apparently worked up tothe time of his death, was the saleof his
practice contemplated or con-summated prior to his death? - Did the
conversation betweenMeyer and Baron Rothschild in-volve marital
advice or other familymatters? - Why does Madame Meyer not ap-pear
in the genealogies of theFrench Rothschild branch or anyother
branch of the Rothschild family?
Regarding potential sites of ren-dezvous and promenade routes,
one may con-sider the location of Rothschild’s bankingheadquarters
and magnificent mansion inParis on rue Lafitte in the 9th
arrondisse-ment. This was not far from the eventual lo-cation of
Meyer’s clinic at 73 boulevardHaussmann in the adjacent 8th
arrondisse-ment. The stately building was then (and stillis) next
to a beautiful little park which is thehome of the expiatory chapel
of Louis XVIand Marie Antoinette (Figure 1). If Sichel’spractice
was discussed between Meyer andRothschild during a promenade, it
could haveoccurred only before Rothschild’s death onNovember 15,
1868 and before Sichel’s deathon November 11, 1868 (just four days
before
“der alte Rothschild”) but not long before asSichel worked until
close to his last days. Apurported topic of marriage is also
specula-tive and potentially problematic. ÉdouardMeyer married
twenty-year-old Léonie Es-ther Cohen who came from very wealthy
Jew-ish families of Marseille (France) and Livorno(Italy). Both
sides of her family were, attimes, involved in banking activities
butwithout any direct connection to the Roth-
schild banking houses. No evidence has beendiscovered to suggest
that Baron de Roth-schild had a hand in the introduction ofÉdouard
Meyer to Mademoiselle LéonieCohen. Perhaps, however, the eligible
youngwoman was known to the Rothschild family:Baron James de
Rothschild; Baronne Bettede Rothschild; or even their unmarried
chil-dren such as the youngest son, Edmond, whowas about her
age.
In a later biographical encyclopedia,a summary written by W.
Haberling aboutMeyer accurately recounted the ophthalmol-ogist’s
professional career and accomplish-ments without much comment on
personaland private matters.6 Eighty years after
5 Hirschberg, Julius. The History of Ophthalmology.Translated by
Frederick C. Blodi. Bonn: Jean-PaulWayenborgh, 1992, vol 11, pt
1‒c, §1267. III. EduardMeyer, pp 627–629 et seq.
6 Hirsch, August. Biographisches Lexikon der hervor-rangenden
Ärzte aller Zeiten und Völker (German),originally published and
edited [Durchgeschen und er-ganzt] in 1932 by W. Haberling, F.
Hübotter, and H.Vierordt; original entry by Prof. W. Haberling;
specialredaction ed. by E. Gurlt and A. Wernich. Munich‒Ber-lin:
Verlag von Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1962, vol. 4
29
Figure 1. Modern appearance of the building which housed Meyer’s
private hos-pital and clinic, 73 boulevard Haussmann, 8th
arrondissement, Paris, France.
-
Meyer’s death and relying upon Hirschberg’ssixty-four year-old
footnote, George Gorinstated (at least partially in error) that
“Meyerwas the ophthalmologist of the Rothschildsand married into
that influential family.”7
James Ravin erroneously embel-lished the importance of the
marriage, pin-pointing Madame Meyer’s origins as “theFrench branch
of the Rothschild family,which brought [Édouard Meyer]
additionalsocial status.”8
It seems quite unlikely that misinfor-mation about the lineage
of Meyer’s wifecame directly from Meyer. Rather than con-ferring
any additional social status, the publicdissemination of this
misinformation wouldhave been a source of severe embarrassmentto
the Parisian ophthalmologist. Rather, it ismore likely that details
of the anecdotalpromenade and the wealthy banker-father ofMadame
Meyer became conflated inHirschberg’s mind by the time he
wroteabout it years after the death of ÉdouardMeyer. An additional
footnote in Hirschberg’sGeschichte underscores the “close
relation-ship” between the two ophthalmologists andintimates an
inadvertent nature of the error.This footnote is likewise quoted in
both Ger-man and English, respectively:
Auch mir hat er, so oft ich in Paris gewesen,die größte
Freundlichkeit bewiesen. Da wiraus derselben Schule hervorgegangen
und na-hezu gleichaltrig waren, so hatten wir natür-lich die besten
Beziehungen zu einander.Einige seiner nächsten Verwandten habe
ichoperirt und behandelt.
[He was most hospitable to me whenever Iwas in Paris. We both
came from the sameschool and were nearly of the same age.
Wetherefore had a close relationship. I operatedand treated some of
his close relatives.]Hirschberg’s affinity for his francophone
col-leagues is reflected in his election to member-ship in the
Société française d’Ophtalmologie
[French Ophthalmological Society] in 1883during the first months
of the society’s exis-tence.9 The establishment of the Société
hadinitially been suggested by Paul Chibret(1844-1911) of
Clermont-Ferrand. Its found-ing bylaws specified membership
criteria un-restricted by nationality. Meyer hadparticipated in the
establishment of the soci-ety and the annual publication of its
Bulletinset Mémoires. The French society and its by-laws were
modeled after the older DeutscheOphthalmologishen Gesellschaft
[GermanOphthalmological Society].10
[Maack‒Salzmann], p 192.7 Gorin, George. History of
Ophthalmology. Publish orPerish, Wilmington, Delaware, 1982, p
190.8 James G. Ravin. “The statesman, the artist, and
theophthalmologist: Clemenceau, Lautrec, and Meyer.”JAMA
Ophthalmology formerly Archives of Ophthal-mology 1999; 117:
951‒54, downloaded from http://ar-chopht.jamanetwork.com/ on March
23, 2016.
9 Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société française
d’Oph-talmologie. 1883; 1: 1‒14 & 124‒125.10 Rohrbach JM.
“Festvortrag im Rahmen des Festak-tes anlässlich der 105.
Zusammekunft und des 150. Ge-burtstages der DOG, Berlin, 21.
September 2007. ‘150Jahre DOG: Danken ‒ gedenken ‒ Gedanken,’
Ceremo-nial Lecture on the Occasion of DOG in Berlin,
2007.”Klinische Monatsblätter für Augenheilkunde 2007; 224:871–880,
DOI 10.1055/s-2007-963635.
30
Figure 2: First issue of the Bulletins et Mémoires of thenewly
founded French Society of Ophthalmology. Foun-dation members were
Abadie, Armaignac, Chibret,Coppez, Gayet, Meyer, Panas and Poncet
as secretary ofthe new society.
(Wayenborgh Collection)
-
Édouard Meyer, His Oculist Brother,and His Students
Although Ravin’s aforementioned ar-ticle stumbled a bit on the
topic of Meyer’swife, his research brought to light some
veryfascinating information about an individualwho appears to have
been the brother ofÉdouard Meyer. This individual -first
nameunknown - was an itinerant fitter of specta-cles - an oculist
of sorts though not a physi-cian. He appears to have been the model
forthe oculist in the short story, “Comment jedevins presbyte” [How
I became presbyopic],by Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929),
thephysician-politician-journalist and futureprime minister of
France (1906-1909 and1917-1920). Clemenceau’s short story
ini-tially appeared in a periodical in 1894 andwas published four
years later in an anthol-ogy of six short stories entitled, Au Pied
duSinaï [At the Foot of Mount Sinai] which wasillustrated by Henri
de Toulouse-Lautrec(1864-1901) including a lithograph
depictingClemenceau being fitted for spectacles.11
Ravin presented strong evidence thatClemenceau’s literary
caricature of Mayer[sic], and Lautrec’s lithographic caricaturewere
based upon the brother of ÉdouardMeyer who “worked in the shadow of
his fa-mous brother, and benefited from his fame.”
He cited a series of advertisementspublished in a periodical of
Dijon, France in1874 announcing the arrival of “MonsieurMeyer,
oculist from Paris, brother of the cele-brated oculist Dr. Meyer,
Professor of Ophthal-mology at the Practical School [Écolepratique]
of the Paris Faculty of Medicine,Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.”
In yet an-other footnote in his Geschichte, Hirschbergstated that
the École pratique “provided anydoctor of the faculty a room for
lecturing, if heso desired. This was a pleasant solution
andreplaced an academic rank.” Perhaps grudg-ingly, the Berlin
professor acknowledged the“misused custom” of lecturers taking
the
right to call themselves professors; this isseen in the
advertisements of ÉdouardMeyer’s brother and in contemporary
worksby Édouard Meyer himself (Figure 2).
The second son of Édouard Meyer,Henri-Édouard Meyer, followed
his fatherinto a career in ophthalmology. Dor recordedthat the
father had inspired the thesis of hisson, a contribution on the
study of the scin-tillating scotoma of ophthalmic migraine(Paris,
1896). Édouard Meyer had hoped that
11 Clemenceau, Georges. Au Pied du Sinaï. Illustrationsby Henri
de Toulouse Lautrec. Paris: Chamerot et Re-nouard for Henri Floury,
1898.
31
Figure 3: Hirschberg amongst the new members of the Société,
theyear of its foundation. On the next page we see also the names
ofSedan (Alger), Wicherkerkiewicz (Posen) and Ribeiro-Santo
(Bahia).This notice is dated Paris, May 1883.
Figure 4: Title page of Meyer’s Traité des opérations quise
pratiquent sur l’œil (1870)
-
his son would take over his practice and con-tinue his work, but
Henri died at the youngage of thirty of tuberculosis. Édouard
Meyeralso suffered from tuberculosis and in his lastyears he
therefore placed the management ofhis clinic in the hands of
Parisian ophthal-mologist-musician-composer Pierre-AlbertKopff
(1846-1908) of the Hôpital Saint-Joseph and the Furtado Heine
Dispensary.12
According to Dor, Meyer had inspiredthe doctoral theses of other
students evenprior to the tutelage of his son, namely De-boys
[Dubois] de Lavigerie, Caudron, and De-bierre. An additional
student of Meyer whohad connections with both the Rothschildfamily
and Meyer was Aharon Meir Mazie(1858-1930).13
Mazie was a polymath engineer andphysician of Eastern-European
Jewish originwho had just graduated from the Universityof Zurich
Medical School with a published the-sis and recommendations from
his late profes-sor, Johann Friedrich Horner (1831-1886).
Mazie studied ophthalmology withMeyer between January and
October 1888with particular research interests in tra-choma which
was especially endemic in theNear East. On July 24, 1888, through
thehelp of Meyer and Paris Chief Rabbi ZadokKahn (1839-1905), Mazie
had a successfulemployment interview with Baron Edmondde Rothschild
at his mansion on rue Lafittewherein he was hired to serve as the
physi-
cian for all of Rothschild’s settlements (or“colonies”). Mazie
immigrated to Palestine inOctober 1888 as part of the so-called
FirstAliyah.14
Publications of Édouard Meyer
The writings of Hirschberg and Dor maybe consulted for lengthy
lists of Meyer’s jour-nal publications on a wide range of
ophthal-mologic topics. The publication of Meyer’sthesis, Du
strabisme (1863/4) and the Frenchtranslation of von Graefe’s
Clinique ophtal-mologique (1866) have been mentionedabove. Meyer’s
interest in teaching in hisclinic and at the École pratique is
reflected inthree textbooks: first a textbook on refractionand
accommodation, Leçons sur la Réfractionet l’Accommodation
(1869)(Figure 5);15 a text-book of ophthalmic surgery, Traité des
opéra-tions qui se pratiquent sur l´Oeil (1870);16
and Traité pratique des maladies des yeux(1873)17 which appeared
in many subsequenteditions and translations (as
enumeratedbelow).
Traité des opérations (1870) wasrichly illustrated and included
several photo-graphs by Monsieur A. de Montméja, the
oph-thalmologist-director of an innovativephotographic clinic at
the Hôpital Saint-Louis. Hirschberg stated that the book soldfor
forty francs making this a rather expen-sive book. Almost 150 years
later, this workwas featured in an exhibition by the Ameri-can
Academy of Ophthalmology’s Museum of
12 “Membres décédé. MM. Kopff (Paris). Fouchard(Mans).”
Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société françaised’Ophtalmologie 1908;
25: lxxiv; Sitzmann, Édouard.Dictionnaire de Biographie des hommes
célèbres del’Alsace, vol. 2. Rixheim: Alsace, F. Sutter & Cie,
1910pp 68‒69. Albert Kopff was born in Benfeld (Bas-Rhin),Alsace on
December 22, 1846. He graduated with hismedical degree from the
École de Santé Militaire deStrasbourg in 1870 with a thesis on
nicotine and imme-diately was called into service in the defense of
Metzduring the Franco-Prussian War. He served as a mili-tary
physician in Algeria for several years and, after1885, in Paris
where he specialized in ophthalmology.He served as chief in the
celebrated clinic of XavierGalezowski (1832‒1907). In 1897, Kopff
established hisown practice of ophthalmology in Paris on the
Avenuede Messine. Kopff was equally accomplished as a pi-anist and
composer. As an arranger he would use thepseudonym, A. Benfeld. He
was a friend of Saint-Saens,who dedicated to him the Suite
algérienne.13 Barak, Smadar. H�amesh ‘Atarot: Dr. Aharon
Mazie,“Rofe ha-Lashon ha-‘Ivrit” [Five Crowns: Dr. AharonMeir
Mazie, “Physician of the Hebrew Language”] (He-brew). Jerusalem:
Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 5774/2013.
14 Reifler, David. Days of Ticho: Empire, Mandate, Med-icine and
Art in the Holy Land. Jerusalem: Gefen Pub-lishing, 2015. In 1882,
Baron Rothschild had begun toassume control of several Jewish
Palestinian settle-ments. In 1887, he and wife Baronne Adelaide
visitedthe Holy Land for the first time, the year before Maziewas
hired and sent to Palestine. Mazie was initiallybased in Rishon
Letziyon but visited many other settle-ments. By the time of the
so-called Second Aliyah be-fore World War I, Mazie was working in
Jerusalem, acontemporary of much younger ophthalmologists suchas
Albert Ticho (1883‒1960) and Aryeh Feigenbaum(1885‒1981). 15 Meyer,
Édouard. Maladies des Yeux. Leçons sur laRéfraction et
l’Accommodation: Professées a l’ÉcolePratique de la Faculté de
Médecine de Paris [Lectureson the Accommodation and Refraction of
the Eye](French). Paris: Librairie Chamerot et Lauwereyns,1869.16
Meyer, Édouard. Traité des opérations qui se prati-quent sur l’œil.
Photographs by A. de Montméja. Paris:H. Lauwereyns, 1870.17 Meyer,
Édouard. Traité pratique des maladies desyeux. Paris: H.
Lauwereyns, 1873.
32
-
Vision as an example of one of the earliestmedical works to
extensively use photographsin the explication of techniques and
con-cepts.18 In addition to the 109 illustrations onwoodcuts
interspersed in Traité des opéra-tions, there were twenty-two hand
tipped-inphotographic plates. One of these plates is ofa posed
group, Meyer seated and performingophthalmic surgery on a patient
in the com-pany of three assistants or observers (Figure6). Given
technical limitations of the day andthe high quality photographic
images pre-sented, the several close-up photographs ofMeyer’s
“surgeries” at the Hôpital Saint-Louis certainly used cadavers
posed as thepatients (Figure 6). The publication of this
work coincided with tremendous social andpolitical turmoil -
war, the end of the SecondEmpire - but as social order was
reestab-lished, Édouard Meyer was made a natural-ized citizen of
the French Third Republichaving remained in the French
capitalthroughout the Siege of Paris and the Com-mune.19
Traité pratique des maladies des yeux,Meyer’s most successful
textbook, wentthrough several editions and translations:four French
editions were published in Paris(1873, 1883, 1887 and 1895)
(Figures 7, 8,and 9); the first of three German editions inBerlin
(1879); English editions in Philadel-phia (1883)20 and London
(1887); and, accord-ing to Hirschberg, there were translationsalso
into Spanish, Italian, Greek, Russian,and Polish. Hirschberg cited
many favorablecontemporary reviews. He personally felt
18 “Picturing the Eye: Ophthalmic Film and Photogra-phy.”
American Academy of Ophthalmology Museum ofVision Exhibitions.
http://museumofvision.org/exhibi-tions/, accessed March 23,
2016.
19 De Wecker, L[ouis]. “The Eye of Gambetta” [Trans-lated from
the French by Thomas M. Dolan]. MidlandMedical Miscellany and
Provincial Medical Journal1882; 2 (No. 16/April 2, 1883):103‒104.
At the outbreakof the Franco-Prussian War in July 1870, Meyer
leftFrance for Vernex, Switzerland, but he returned toParis on
September 1st just as Napoleon III and theFrench cavalry charged to
its defeat at the Battle ofSedan in the Ardennes. That week in
Paris, Meyer wit-nessed the proclamation of the French Third
Republicby Léon Gambetta, a one-eyed politician who was a pa-tient
of Meyer’s colleague, Louis de Wecker.20 Meyer, Édouard. A
Practical Treatise on Diseases ofthe Eye. Translated by Freeland
Fergus. Philadelphia:P. Blakiston, Son & Co., 1887.
33
Figure 5: Title page of Meyer's Leçons sur la Réfraction et
l’Ac-commodation (1869)
(Wayenborgh Collection)
Figure 6: Édouard Meyer (seated) with colleagues, posing with
acadaver as if performing surgery. From Traité des
opérations(1870). Photograph by A. de Montméja.
-
that Albrecht von Graefe’s teachings werepresented in a
comprehensive, easily under-standable fashion, and he noted that
the very
few initial mistakes were eliminated even bythe time of the
first German edition. TheRevue générale d’Ophtalmologie
(founded1870 by Meyer and Dor) also achieved a last-ing legacy when
it was merged into theArchives d’Ophtalmologie in 1936, manyyears
after each of the co-founders’ deaths.
Madame Léonie Esther Meyer, née Cohen
According to Gilbert Bloch, on March24, 1866,
twenty-seven-year-old ÉdouardMeyer married Léonie Esther Cohen who
wasthree weeks shy of her twenty-first birthday.21
Léonie was born in Marseille to afamily of considerable wealth
and means. Herfather, David de Léon Cohen (1820-1891)(Figure 10),
was an entrepreneurialbusinessman of Marseille who played a
sig-nificant role in the development of commer-cial relations
between that city and Morocco.He did not confine his activities to
just importand export but, for a period of time, was alsoactive as
an arms dealer and bank director.
Léonie’s Meyer’s paternal great-grandfather, Moïse Mardochée
Cohen (1770-1859), was born in Vaucluse at21 Bloch, Gilbert: David
de Léon Cohen, négociant, ar-
mateur et banquier Marseillais (Gênes, 25 juin 1820 –Marseille,
8 août 1891). Provence Historique 1996; 46(183): 27–56.
34
Figure 7: Meyer´s Traité pratique des Maladies des Yeux,here in
its first edition, became one of the most popularFrench ophthalmic
treatises of that period of time.
(Wayenborgh Collection)
Figure 8: Meyer´s Strabometer, illustration from thesecond
edition of the Traité Pratique, Paris (1880)
(Wayenborgh Collection)
Figure 9: Meyer´s Perimeter, wood cut inthe second edition of
the Traité Pratique,
Paris (1880)(Wayenborgh Collection)
-
Isle-sur-Sorgue toward the end of the periodwhen the Comtat
(County) Venaissin and itsJewish population were still under the
con-trol and protection of the pope.
Léonie’s paternal grandfather, busi-nessman Léon Cohen
(1794-1859) was bornin Avignon to French parents who
becamenaturalized citizens of France through theannexation of the
Comtat in 1791. Sometimeafter 1794, in the wake of greater
freedomsand Napoleonic conquests, the Cohen familymigrated to Genoa
where Léon grew to ma-turity and married. His wife, Esther, gavehim
several children including David whowas born there on June 25, 1820
(Figure 5).Although Genoa had been lost to France withthe defeat of
Napoleon, young David couldclaim French citizenship through his
father,Léon and his grandfather, Moïse. David andgrandfather Moïse
migrated back to Franceand settled in Marseille, while other
familymembers -including father Léon and Leon’solder married sister
Rosine Arbib- migratedfurther away from France along the
Liguriancoast, settling in Livorno. Through the courseof their
migrations, the family developed sev-eral exclusive trading
concessions in Moroccowhile maintaining interests in Italy
andTunisia. Perhaps these interests eventuallyinvolved a marital
match.
The mother of Léonie Esther Meyer,Rachel Cohen (née Jalfon,
1819-1890), camefrom an equally prosperous family of Livorno,Italy
to where Léon Cohen had migrated. TheJalfon family (Jalfoni in
Italian) had variousmonopolies and concessions over commercial
relations with Tunisia. Rachel Cohen’s par-ents - i.e., Madame
Meyer’s maternal grand-parents - Léon Jalfon and
AllegraAnchiovotti, died in 1835 and 1844, respec-tively, leaving
Rachel Jalfon a wealthy and eli-gible twenty-five year old orphan.
Almostexactly nine months following the marriage ofRachel Jalfon
and David de Léon Cohen in Mar-seille, Madame Cohen gave birth to
her onlychild, Léonie, in Marseille on April 15, 1845.
The marriage of David and RachelCohen, however, was not a happy
one. Di-vorce in France was against the law in thosedays, but the
couple legally separated in 1855after eleven years of marriage.
Both of theseparated spouses were unable to remarryuntil divorce
was reinstituted in France in1884 and only David remarried.22
Remainingin Marseille, David Cohen kept a statelyhome (“la Maison
Blanche”) in the Sainte-Marguerite Banlieue de Marseille on
cheminde Saint-Tronc. At various times he alsomaintained residences
in town. DavidCohen’s personal attention to his Jewishfaith was
tenuous but he was generous to-ward Jewish charities and supported
the con-struction of the Synagogue of Marseille,begun on September
22, 1864.
Léonie was just ten years old at thetime of the separation of
her parents in 1855when Rachel Cohen returned to Livorno,Italy.
Custody, domicile, and educationarrangements for Léonie have not
been fullyresearched, but she does not appear in censusdata for her
father’s households. However, itis not clear how much time she
spent inLivorno with her mother and what roleLéonie’s father played
in her life. The lastwill of David de Léon Cohen combined
withpatriarchal laws and customs suggest a con-tinuing
relationship. Despite a brief down-turn in his fortunes in the
early 1880s, theestate of David Cohen was again secure bythe time
of his death in 1891. 22 The physician, chemist, and politician,
Alfred Naquet(1834‒1916), a former professor at the Faculty of
Medi-cine in Paris (and Palermo), was the leading politicalforce
behind the reinstitution of divorce in France.After a
sixty-eight-year ban, divorce was reestablishedin France by
legislative act on July 27, 1884. At thetime of his political
success, Naquet represented Vau-cluse in his native region of
Avignon. Along with manynotable physicians, Naquet is pictured in
the famousgroup tableau painting of a Charcot demonstration,“Une
leçon clinique à la Salpêtrière” [A Clinical Lessonat the
Salpêtrière], by Pierre Brouillet (1887).
35
Figure 10: Meyer’s father-in-law, David de Léon Cohen in1879.
Photograph by
Camille Brion, Marseille.
-
Cohen’s will provided a fifty percentshare to his second wife
with the remainderdivided among the three children of Édouardand
Léonie Meyer.
Following the wedding of LéonieCohen and Dr. Édouard Meyer in
March1866, the couple made their home in Parisand raised three
children to maturity - twosons and one daughter - Léon,
Henri-Édouard who has been mentioned, and Hen-riette. Madame Léonie
Meyer suffered fromGraves’ disease, ophthalmic signs of whichwould
have been recognized by her husband.She died in Paris on January 4,
1890 at theage of forty-five, survived by her husband,her three
children, and her parents, but pre-deceasing her mother by only a
few days andher father by nineteen months. PerhapsGraves’
disease-associated problems or tuber-culosis contracted from her
husband con-spired to cut her life short.
Dor wrote that during the several lastyears of his life, Édouard
Meyer wintered at hiscountry home in Sainte-Marguerite outside
ofMarseille [near where his wife, Léonie, had spenther childhood],
and he summered in the coolmountains of Switzerland.
On July 27, 1902, six weeks beforehis death, Meyer wrote to Dor
from a sanitar-ium in Falkenstein outside of Frankfurt Ger-many, “I
have been here a fortnight, andaccording to colleagues here, I
should stay forthe entire month of August. I don’t complain,because
I very much enjoy the stay, but thisis not [your beloved]
Switzerland, which Imust give up forever with the greatest of
re-grets. Naturally, I will not be able to go toHeidelberg… and I
cannot insist that youvisit me here because of the obligatory
silencewhich is a part of my treatment, renderingvisits rather
tiresome.”
On August 26, Meyer thanked Dorfor sending analyses and a report
of the meet-ing at Heidelberg [August 4-6, 1902] whichwere kindly
given to him by Theodor Axen-feld (1867-1930) on his way back
toFreiberg.23
Meyer died two weeks later on Sep-tember 9, 1902.
David de Léon Cohen, His Second Wife, and
Maxime (de Nimal) Weygand
David de Léon Cohen has attracted the at-tention of historians
because of his role aslegal guardian of a youth named Maxime
deNimal (later surnamed Weygand; 1867–1965)who went on to become an
important generalof the French Army in both World Wars.
Thecircumstances of Weygand’s presumably ille-gitimate birth have
been explained by mytho-logical speculations of noble and even
royalparentage.24 Throughout his life Weygandmaintained he did not
know the identity ofhis parents. The mysterious back story of
hisorigins (and the cover stories which evolvedduring his
childhood) ultimately facilitatedhis military career and
advancement to thearmy’s highest echelons. The
aforementionedresearch of Gilbert Bloch pieces together theevidence
and chronology, making a strongcase that Maxime Weygand was the son
ofDavid de Léon Cohen and his longtime part-ner and eventual wife,
Thérèse JoséphineDenimal (1837-1919)(Figure 11).
As an infant, Maxime de Nimal (thesurname divided into two
words), wasbrought from Brussels to Marseille, ostensiblyto be
raised by a widow, Virginie Saget, whowas in Mr. Cohen’s employ and
lived in an ad-jacent domicile. Cohen provided an excellentprimary
education for the child, leading to hisenrollment as a foreign
(Belgian) cadet at theÉcole spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr.
Mean-while, the Naquet divorce law was passed onJuly 27, 1884 and
on April 8, 1885, after a co-
23 Greeff, Richard. “Report of the Meeting of the Ger-man
Ophthalmological Society at Heidelberg, August4‒6, 1902. Translated
by Dr. Ward A. Holden. Archivesof Ophthalmology 1903; 32: 31‒50,
including pp 43‒44describing Axenfeld’s first public demonstration
of in-
trascleral nerve loops which originate from the ciliarynerves
(so-called Axenfeld nerve loops).24 Paoli, Dominique. Maxime ou le
secret Weygand.Brussels: Éditions Racine, 2003, pp 15 & 206.
Manyspeculative and even fanciful theories have been ad-vanced
regarding the mysterious birth origins ofMaxime de Nimal, the
future General Maxime Wey-gand: the illegitimate son of either
Empress Carlota ofMexico (1840‒1927) or her lady-in-waiting,
MélanieMetternich-Zichy (1832‒1819), by General Alfred Vander
Smissen (1823‒1895); as the illegitimate son of aPolish mistress of
Leopold II King of the Belgians(1835‒1909) who was Empress
Carlota’s brother anddubiously acquainted with David de Léon Cohen;
KingLeopold’s Polish mistress; and as briefly describedherein, the
legitimate son of Joseph Leroy (b. 1829)and laundress
Hortense-Joséphine Denimal (b. 1823).
36
-
habitating relationship of two decades, Davidde Léon Cohen (age
65) married Mademoi-selle Denimal (age 45). There was no
religiousceremony as Cohen was Jewish and his bridewas Catholic. In
October 1888, two monthsbefore Maxime received a commission as
asecond lieutenant in the 4th Cavalry Regi-ment, his paternity was
“discovered” and ac-knowledged by one of Cohen’s
bookkeepers,François-Joseph Weygand. By establishingFrench instead
of Belgian citizenship,Maxime Weygand could receive an appoint-ment
as an instructor at the prestigious Écolede Cavalerie de Saumur and
it opened impor-tant paths for a future military career.25
Family and Origins of Mademoiselle Denimal.
Thérèse-Joséphine Denimal wasborn in suburban Brussels on
November 12,1837 (St.-Josse Ten Noode, Banlieue of Brus-sels), the
ninth of ten children. Her father,Constant-Joseph Denimal (b.
1789), was agardener born near the towns of Bouchainand Cambrai in
the area of northern France,south of the city of Lille not far from
the Bel-gian border. Her mother, Marie BarbeJoséphine Dumont was
born in Courbevoie,a town just northwest of central Paris
(itssouthern portion now within La Défense). In1844, the
Constant-Joseph Denimal familymigrated back to France, including
Thérèse’solder sister, Hortense Denimal.26
Soon after David de Léon Cohen diedin 1891, veuve Thérèse Cohen
departed Mar-seille for Paris, where she could remain closeto her
extended family. From there she wouldhave followed Maxime Weygand’s
rise intothe upper echelons of the French Army. As a
junior officer, Weygand had ironically beenamong the most vocal
antidreyfusard (andperhaps, therefore, anti-Semitic) members ofhis
regiment during the years of the DreyfusAffair. This was in spite
of his confirmed con-nections as a prior ward of David Cohen
orperhaps because of them. No portion of theCohen’s over
650,000-franc net estate hadbeen left to him, and, as Bloch
commented,this was in comparison to the annual salaryof a French
Army second lieutenant in thatera of about 2,500 francs. In
contrast, the rec-ognized surviving grandchildren of DavidCohen -
the three children of Édouard Meyerand Cohen’s deceased legitimate
daughterLéonie Esther Meyer - divided half of his es-tate. The
first half of the estate had gone tohis second wife, Thérèse Cohen
who probablyprovided some ongoing support to Weygand inthe early,
leaner years of his military career.
Thérèse Cohen lived to see the end ofWorld War I, indeed long
enough to learn thatGeneral Maxime Weygand had personallyread the
terms of the armistice to his Germancounterparts at Compiègne in
the earlymorning hours of November 11, 1918. WhenThérèse Cohen née
Denimal died in Paris onSeptember 7, 1919, General Weygand payedthe
costs of her funeral and interment in aCourbevoie cemetery in the
company of herparents. She chose this over a previously re-served
plot in the Saint-Pierre cemetery ofMarseille, just outside of but
adjacent to theJewish cemetery and the final resting placeof David
Cohen. Perhaps it was personallyfortuitous for Weygand and his two
sons,Édouard and Jacques Weygand, that no issueof his mysterious,
possibly Jewish lineage hadever been a part of the general’s
record. Dur-ing World War II, after a brief period of
col-laboration, General Weygand decidedly fellout of favor with the
conquering Nazi regime.
Conclusion
An error has been discovered in afootnote in Julius Hirschberg’s
History ofOphthalmology regarding the family originsof the wife of
ophthalmologist ÉdouardMeyer. Rather than tracing her origins to
thefamily of Baron James de Rothschild, the lin-eage of Madame
Léonie Esther Meyer (néeCohen) was found in descriptions of
success-ful business and trading families of Marseilleand Livorno
who had only minor or short-
25 Singer, Barnett. Maxime Weygand: A Biography ofthe French
General in Two World Wars. Jefferson, NC:McFarland & Co.,
2008.26 Fouvez, Charles. Le mystère Weygand. Paris, LaTable Rond,
1967. Hortense Denimal (b. May 5, 1823)gave birth to the daughter
of Félix Dievoet, HenrietteLouise Van Dievoet (b. January 11, 1846)
who was le-gitimized through the marriage of the couple in Parison
May 10, 1848. Félix, Hortense, and young Henriettereturned to
Brussels that month but Felix died justtwenty days later on May 30,
1848. Hortense eventu-ally remarried on April 2, 1857 to Joseph
Leroy (b.1829), but she apparently led a rough-and-tumble lifein
difficult circumstances and neighborhoods. Thisolder sister of
Thérèse Cohen née Denimal has there-fore also been implicated as
the possible mother ofMaxime Weygand.
37
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lived banking activities. Hirschberg’s errorwas probably based
upon faulty recollectionsof personal conversations with Meyer
manyyears after the latter’s death, whereby he per-haps conflated
several stories: Meyer’s pro-fessional services to the Rothschilds;
aninteresting anecdote of a doctor-patientpromenade; and Madame
Meyer’s family ofbusinessmen, successful though at a level farbelow
the astounding wealth of the Roth-schild family.
Further study of the intersections ofbetween the Rothschild
family, ÉdouardMeyer, and Meyer’s student Aharon Maziemay shed
light on proto-Zionist activities inParis during the latter part of
the nineteenthcentury. Meanwhile a reexamination ofMeyer’s
professional career and private lifehas revealed a surprising
familial connectionbetween Meyer’s wife and General MaximeWeygand.
If the histories would be so craftedin their writing, the
intersecting stories couldshow reciprocal footnotes to summarize
theseconnections.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank the gra-cious research staff of the
Bibliothèque na-tionale de France in Paris who do theirwonderful
work without individual credit.
38
Figure 11: Family tree of Léonie Esther Meyer, née Cohen
according to references cited and prepared by the author.
This paper was presented, in part, on April 16, 2016, atthe
Cogan Ophthalmic History Society 29th AnnualMeeting, St. Louis,
Missouri.