Pierre Mauriac was a French medical doctor and professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bordeaux, born on 21 November 1882 and died on 1 November 1963 in Bordeaux (Gironde). He served as dean of the medical school from 1934 to 1944. He was the brother of the writer François Mauriac, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1952. He was a member of the royalist political movement Action Française and actively backed Philippe Pétain and the Vichy regime during the German occupation. He was appointed chairman of the Gironde departmental council of the order of physicians by the Vichy government in 1940. Following the Liberation of France, his trial for collaboration was dismissed. He was suspended from his post as dean in 1944, then dismissed in 1946 for Pétainist propaganda and for his role in the execution of the resistant Dr . This sanction was overturned in 1949 by the French Council of State.
Biography
Family origins and private life Leonard-Pierre Mauriac, known better as Pierre Mauriac, was born on 21 November 1882 in Bordeaux (Gironde). He was the son of Jean-Paul Mauriac (1850–1887), a landowner, and Claire Coiffard (1856–1929). He was the fourth of five children, the youngest being the writer François Mauriac (1885–1970) who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1952, to whom he was very close.
On his father's side, he came from a family of landowners who owned several estates (, Château de Langon), vineyards and pine forests. His mother was from a family of wealthy Bordeaux merchants, his grandfather owned a business selling fabrics and shawls from India, and his grandmother was the heiress to a refinery. His father was a secularist and a republican, whilst his mother was a devout Catholic.
He was five years old when his father died from a brain abscess. His paternal uncle, Louis Mauriac, a magistrate, was then appointed guardian of the children's estate. The family lived in Bordeaux in their maternal grandmother's house in Rue Duffour-Dubergier until 1894, before moving into their own home, first in Rue Vital-Carles, then to Rue Margaux, and finally to 15 Rue Rolland in a house purchased by his mother, where Pierre and François shared a room. Pierre Mauriac married Emilie Latrille (1886–1955) on 21 July 1909 in Bordeaux, and they had seven children between 1910 and 1924.
Education Pierre Mauriac went to school in religious institutions, first with the Marianist Brothers in Bordeaux, then at the Lycée Grand-Lebrun in Caudéran near Bordeaux. In 1900, he obtained his baccalaureate in both Literature and Philosophy, and Literature and Mathematics. His brother François described him as "a serious and studious lad, to be sure! and one who had won every prize in his class, without exception, to the point that on the day of the formal prize-giving ceremony, the three brothers were laden with books and wreaths, but it was only Pierre who had earned them". His mother described him as a child who was "stubborn and proud as a mule".
Pierre Mauriac continued his studies at the Faculty of Science in Bordeaux, obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree, then in 1902 a certificate in chemical, physical and natural sciences. In 1903, he began studying medicine on the advice of his brother-in-law Georges Fieux, husband of his elder sister Germaine and a professor of obstetrics at the Faculty of Medicine in Bordeaux . In October 1904, he passed the competitive examination for the externship programme in Bordeaux and was appointed to the surgical unit at . In 1905, he became a resident in the Bordeaux hospitals, his time as a resident in Professor Albert Pitres’ department would leave a lasting impression on him. He was also a student of Professors Xavier Arnozan, Emmanuel Régis and Jean Abadie. In 1909, he defended his doctoral thesis in medicine entitled The Serological Diagnosis of Syphilis: work from the Laboratory of Experimental Medicine.
Hospital and academic career in Bordeaux in 1911, Pierre Mauriac was appointed assistant practitioner at Saint-André Hospital. Concurrently, he was assistant professor at the Faculty of Medicine, leading practical classes in medical semiology.Administrative file of Professor Pierre Mauriac. University of Bordeaux, Archives Department - Data and activity documents, file reference number RHC_23. In 1913, he was appointed full professor at the Faculty of Medicine in the general medicine section.
During the First World War, he held several positions from 1914 to 1918 in the Armed Forces Medical Service, and was a professor at the Soissons Medical Teaching Centre. Having been wounded, he was awarded the Croix de Guerre with two commendations and the Légion of Honour.
On his return to Bordeaux, he became a permanent practitioner of Bordeaux Hospitals at the central laboratory responsible for biological analyses at Saint-André Hospital, and served as its director from 1920 to 1931. Mauriac developed several biochemical methods of analysis, and the laboratory was one of the first in France to devise a technique for extracting insulin from animal pancreases, enabling the treatment of people with insulin-dependent diabetes.
During this period, he taught the course in general pathology and subsequently internal pathology at the Faculty of Medicine, as well as practical sessions in bacteriology and the module on experimental medicine. In 1926, he was appointed to the Chair of Experimental Medicine, than in 1931, to the Chair of Clinical Medicine following the untimely death of Professor Verger. He then became head of one of the clinical medicine departments at Saint-André Hospital, where he arrived every morning at eight o’clock sharp, whilst also seeing private patients in town at his practice located in his home on Rue Vauban in Bordeaux.
He was a recognised specialist in diabetes and described Mauriac’s Syndrome in children with uncontrolled diabetes, characterised by hepatomegaly associated with stunted growth and mental retardation. Mauriac became a member of the Bordeaux Academy of Sciences, Literature and Arts in 1927, editor-in-chief of the Journal de Médecine de Bordeaux (1936–1944), and a national corresponding member of the National Academy of Medicine (Medicine Division) from 26 January 1937.
He wrote several books in which he set out his "priestly" vision of medicine, denouncing its dehumanization resulting from the development of a scientific and technical approach: "We are destroying medicine by seeking to dehumanise it [...] Gradually losing sight of the mystery of the human being, medicine has come to regard the individual merely as a component of a technical system". He opposed the development of preventive medicine: "The concern for public health turns every individual into a suspect threatened by disease", as well as any state control over the practice of medicine.
He was elected Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy at Bordeaux on 1 June 1934, and was re-elected on 1 June 1937, and again on 1 June 1940 by the Vichy government. Following the Liberation of France, he was suspended from his position as dean with effect from 4 September 1944 by a decree of the Ministry of Education dated 24 November 1944 (details in the section of the article After the Liberation). On 30 March 1946, he was simultaneously reinstated to his post and dismissed with a pension. Mauriac appealed to the French Council of State, which quashed the decision on 1 June 1949. Whilst he had been placed on leave from his university hospital duties, he was simultaneously reinstated and granted the right to claim his pension on 17 June 1950. He resumed his private practice and continued to publish scientific and literary articles and books.
Involvement in politics
Membership of Action Française After the First World War, Mauriac embraced the nationalist royalist ideology of Charles Maurras and joined the French political movement Action Française. He took part in Action Française medical banquets.
Raised by his mother and grandmother in a traditional religious household, Mauriac was a devout Catholic. He was shocked by the anticlericalism he encountered during his medical training: "I began my medical studies at a time when triumphant scientism was in full flow. Only the nationalist scholars exercised the freedom to assert their convictions. The word "God" was never uttered in the lecture theatres, while anticlerical jokes and assertions went unchallenged".
Affected by Pope Pius XI’s condemnation of Action Française in 1926—which forced people to choose between the Catholic Church and the Maurassian movement—he announced to his students: "Gentlemen, I have made my choice; I remain faithful to Action Française! ". As a member of Action Française, he was banned from the Catholic Church. In the account of Mauriac by Eugen Weber in his book Action Française: Royalism and Reaction in Twentieth Century France, Mauriac mentioned that he did not receive Holy Communion for four years. In 1928, Mauriac and Professor Henri Carteron from the University of Strasbourg launched a petition by Catholic professors "for forgiveness and reconciliation", which was quietly abandoned in the face of attacks from the liberals.
The Second World War and the German occupation
Support for the Vichy regime When the Second World War broke out, Mauriac stepped down from his post as dean to serve as an army adviser, voluntarily heading for the front whilst his five sons were being called up. Following the French army defeat of 1939, he resumed his post as dean. His support for Maréchal Philippe Pétain never wavered throughout the Nazi Occupation, and he made it clear at the beginning of every academic year in his addresses to medical and pharmacy students.
In 1941, he also expressed his satisfaction that the Nazi occupation had not affected the running of the faculty: "it is my duty to pay tribute to the discreet liberalism of the occupying authorities, who at no point interfered with the academic life of our institution". In 1942, Mauriac urged his older students to step up and take the place of the doctors held as prisoners of war in Germany: "You who have never been called up—neither to the barracks, nor to a youth camp, nor to the armed forces—think of the five hundred doctors and pharmacists who, for the past 36 months, have devoted themselves to their unfortunate brothers, and offer to relieve them. For the honour of the medical profession, my greatest hope is that conscription will not be necessary".
Mauriac was a recipient of the Order of the Francisque and belonged to the Association of Friends of the Maréchal.
Gironde departmental council of the order of physicians
As soon as the French order of physicians was established by the Vichy government, Pierre Mauriac was appointed Chairman of the Gironde departmental council of the order. He held this post throughout the Nazi occupation, and made sure his team of doctors shared his political views.
Role of the order of physicians in the execution of Dr Charles Nancel-Pénard When Dr (1906–1941), a communist activist, member of the International Brigades and of the Resistance, was imprisoned in Bordeaux in October 1940, a petition was signed by numerous doctors in Bordeaux calling for his release. This petition was condemned on 24 January 1941 by a motion of the Gironde departmental council of the order of physicians, chaired by Mauriac:
Charles Nancel-Pénard was briefly released from prison in February 1941, but was again arrested in June 1941. He was executed by firing squad at the in Martillas-sur-Jalle (Gironde) on 24 October 1941 along with 49 other prisoners, including his friend, the communist resistance fighter , in retaliation for the Resistance's assassination of a German officer.
Xenophobic statements and the revocation of Dr Sabatino Schinazi's medical licence