Note 1394 — Chapter VIII · (continued 2)

In the eighteenth century, the Spaniards, generally, began to admit this; since they could not shut their eyes to the fact that their friends and relations succumbed so rapidly under professional treatment, that sickness and death were almost synonymous. Hence, notwithstanding their hatred of the French nation, they availed themselves of the services of French physicians and French surgeons, whenever they had an opportunity of doing so. In 1707, the Princess des Ursins writes from Madrid to Madame de Maintenon, ‘Les chirurgiens espagnols sont mésestimés même de ceux de leur nation;’ and, in another letter, ‘Les Espagnols conviennent que les médecins français sont beaucoup plus savants que les leurs; ils s'en servent même très-volontiers, mais ils sont persuadés que ceux de la faculté de Montpellier l'emportent sur les autres.’ Lettres inédites de Madame de Maintenon et de la Princesse des Ursins, vol. iii. p. 412, vol. iv. p. 90.