Page:Repertory of the Comedie Humaine.djvu/160



DESMARETS, Parisian notary during the Restoration; elder brother of the broker, Jules Desmarets. The notary was set up in business by his younger brother and grew rich rapidly. He received his brother's will. He accompanied him to Mme. Desmarets' funeral. (The Thirteen)

DESPLEIN, famous surgeon of Paris, born about the middle of the eighteenth century. Sprung of a poor provincial family, he spent a youth full of suffering, being enabled to pass his examinations only through assistance rendered him by his neighbor in poverty, Bourgeat the water-carrier. For two years he lived with him on the sixth floor of a wretched house on rue des Quatre-Vents, where later was established the "Cenacle" with Daniel d'Arthez as host&mdash;on which account the house came to be spoken of as the "bowl for great men." Desplein, evicted by his landlord whom he could not pay, lodged next with his friend the Auvergnat in the Court de Rohan, Passage du Commerce. Afterwards, when an "intern" at Hotel-Dieu, he remembered the good deeds of Bourgeat, nursed him as a devoted son, and, in the time of the Empire, established in honor of this simple man who professed religious sentiments a quarterly mass at Saint-Sulpice, at which he piously assisted, though himself an outspoken atheist. (The Atheist's Mass) In 1806 Desplein had predicted speedy death for an old fellow then fifty-six years old, but who was still alive in 1846. (Cousin Pons) The surgeon was present at the death caused by despair of M. Chardon, an old military doctor. (Lost Illusions) Desplein attended the last hours of Mme. Jules Desmarets, who died in 1820 or 1821; also of the chief of division, Flamet de la Billardiere, who died in 1824. (The Thirteen, The Government Clerks) In March, 1828, at Provins, he performed an operation of trepanning on Pierrette Lorrain. (Pierrette) In the same year he undertook a bold operation upon Mme. Philippe Bridau whose abuse of strong drink had induced a "magnificent malady" that he believed had disappeared. This operation was reported in the "Gazette des Hopitaux;" but the patient died. ([[A