Condorcet was another disilevished •character with whom Cabaois was on terms of intimacy. The calamitous events of the Revolution, and the relent less persecution which the former was suffering from the party which had gained the ascendancy, tended only to unite them still more closely in the ties of friendship ; and Cabanis exerted every means in his power to avert his impending fate. But all his efforts were unavailing ; and he had only the melan choly consolation of preserving the last writings of his unfortunate friend, and of collecting his dying wishes relative to his wife and children. Soon after this event be married Charlotte Grouchy, sister to Madame Condorcet, and to General Grouchy ; a union which was a great source of happiness to him during the remainder of his life.
After the subversion of the government of the terrorists, on the establishment of central schools, Cabanis was named Professor of Hygiene, in the medical schools of the metropolis. He was chosen member of the National Institute the next year, and on the following, was appointed Clinical Professor. He was afterwards • member of the Council of Five Hundred, and then of the Conservative Senate. The dissolution of the Directory was the result of a mo tion which he made to that effect. But his political career was not of long continuance. He was pro foundly affected at the turn which the affairs of his country were taking, so unfavourable to the cause of liberty, and so dispiriting to the friends of humanity; and the latter years of his life were, in consequence, deeply tinctured with melancholy. A foe to tyran ny, under every shape, he was decidedly hostile to the policy of Buonaparte, and had constantly ed all his solicitations to accept of a place under his government.
For some years before his death, his health be came gradually more impaired, in consequence of the exertions and anxieties he had undergone; and, in the spring of 1807, he had a slight apoplectic at tack, from which he soon recovered. He took, however, the warning that was thus given him, and retired from the laborious duties of his •spending the greatest part of his time at the chateau •of his flither-m-law, at Meulan, about thirty miles from Paris. Here he again solaced himself with reading his favourite poets, and even had it in con templation to resume his translation of the Iliad, which had been the first effort of his youthful muse. The rest of his time was devoted to acts of kindness and beneficence, especially towards the poor, who flocked from all parts to consult him on their com plaints. Increasing infirmity now made him sensi ble that his life was drawing near to a close, and he was fond • of conversing on the subject of his ap proaching end,—an event which he always contem plated with perfect serenity of mind. A more com
plete attack of his disorder, at length, carried him off, on the 5th of May 1808, when he had attained his fifty-second year. He left a widow and one daughter to lament •the loss of one. who united to the ornaments of a highly cultivated mind, the great est sensibility and benevolence of heart.
Besides the tracts already mentioned, he was au thor of several other works. The only one among them which is purely pf a literary nature, is the Mélanges de Liltirature .allemande, ou Choir de traductions de r Alkmand, &c. Seto, 1797. It is dedicated to Madame Helvetius, and consists of translations of different works of Meisner,—of drama of GoEthe's entitled •tella,—of Gray's Elegy on a Country Church-Yard,—and of the Idyl of Bion on the Death of Adonis. His work, Du de:re de certitude de la Medecine, appeared in the same year, and a second edition was published in 1808, containing a republication of his Observations sur les liepitaux, and his Journal de la Maladie et de la Mort de Mirabeau Paine; together with a short tract on the punishment of the guillotine, in which he combats the opinion of Soemmerring, CEIsuer, and Sue, that sensibility remains for some time after de capitation. This tract had appeared in the Ma gazin Encyclopedique, and in the first volume of the Memoires de k Societe Medicate d'Emulation. This new edition also contains his Rapport fait au Conseil des Cinq-cents sur l'Organisation des stoles de Mide sine ; and a long dissertation entitled, Quelques prin cipes et quelques cues sur les aecours publiques. In 1799, he published Quelques Considerations sur l'Or ganisation sociale en general, et particulierement sur la nouvelle Constitution, 12mo. His principal work, however, is that entitled, Des Rapport. du Physique et du Moral de f Hamm, 1808, in two volumer8vo ; consisting of twelve essays, the first six of which had been presented to the National Institute, and were inserted in the two first volumes of their Memoirs, in the Class of Moral and Political Sciences. This work was reprinted in the following year, with the addition of a copious analytical table of its contents by M. Destutt-Tracy, and alphabetical indexes by M. Sue. His Coup d'ceil sur les Revolutions et les rebrntes de la Me'decine, came out in 1808. Of this work we possess an excellent English translation,with notes, by Dr Henderson. His only practical work on medicine is the Observations star les Affections Catarr hales en general, et partind4rentent sur cellos con tuses sous le nom de rhuntes de ceroeau, et rhumes de poitrine, 8vo, 1807. He wrote many interesting articles in the Magazin Encyclopedique. Several of his speeches to the Legislative Assembly arc given at full length in the columns of the Moniteur.
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