Denouncing charlatans at the end of the eighteenth century: the politics of constituting a medical public

Abstract This article explores the porous boundary between medical and political publics at the end of the eighteenth century, based on letters sent to the Société royale de médecine in Paris by provincial surgeons and practitioners denouncing charlatans. In denouncing charlatans for failing to obey the law, for the ineffectiveness of their remedies and for criticizing local authorities, those members of the bourgeoisie who spoke in the name of the public good constituted a public whose judgements had scientific as well as political value. Yet they also excluded from this public people deemed to be ignorant and lacking sufficient social standing. This article shows that the authors of these letters met the expectations of the Société royale de médecine, expectations which are exemplified in its treatment of the Mesmer affair.