Above: One of the two small rooms of the headquarters of the French Division of the IAP. Michele Fontaniere, the full time Secretary, is seated at the desk. Behind her, working on the next edition of the division bulletin, is the Medical Secretary of the IAP, Christiane Bailly.

Map of central Lyon showing the places mentioned in this article.

Lyon is the second largest city in France. The central portion of the city is situated on a peninsula formed by the confluence of the two rivers - the Rhone and the Saone. The centre of the present city is the large square - Bellecour, on the peninsula itself. This square was created in 1617. It was then surrounded by four-storey buildings which date from the 17th century. With Bellecour as a central focus, the new city of Lyon spreads outwards into the suburbs.
In spite of the fact that the city is now heavily industrialised, it has succeeded in maintaining a unique architectural and cultural heritage. The old city of Lyon (Vieux Lyon) is situated on the Western side of the River Saone. Beside the river a small strip of flat land rises steeply up the hill called Fourviere. The old town was built between the 12th and 15th centuries. The buildings are crowded together and are separated by narrow medieval streets and numerous alleyways. The Cathedral of St Jean which was completed in the 15th century is a Gothic cathedral with beautiful stained glass windows. It also has a 14th century clock which keeps almost perfect time. The old city has numerous restaurants, antique shops and workshops for the restoration of antiques.

The 17th century buildings surrounding Bellecour were built during the time when the silk industry flourished in this area. This industry formed the basis of the commercial development of Lyon. The industry survived until the end of the Second World War when it became uncompetitive. Louis Pasteur, the great microbiologist, made one of his first important microbiological contributions in 1864. The silkworms were dying and the silk industry was in grave danger of dying as well. Pasteur demonstrated that the disease was caused by a micro-organism transferred by direct contact from infected worms to uninfected ones. By separating the infected worms, the disease was controlled. This was one of the many applied scientific contributions which Pasteur made to French industry.
Lyon continues this tradition of fostering research and applied technology through its many modern schools and tertiary education institutions.

Figure 1: Aerial photograph showing the Hotel Dieu in the foreground with the old 17th century Hospital, now a Museum, the smaller dome to the right of the larger one. The cleared area is Bellecour. The four-storey houses on the left of the picture are 17th century apartment buildings. The trees in the foreground are on the banks of the Rhone. The river Saone is seen in the upper third of the picture with the Cathedral St Jean to the right of the bridge. The trees are in a park on the Hill Fourviere. The hole in the ground in Bellecour was made in the 1980’s when the metro station was being constructed.

To the East across the River Rhone from Bellecour there is a line of Government buildings built in the architectural tradition of the 19th century. The City Council regulations ensure that any changes to these three areas must maintain the integrity of the original architecture. Lyon has recently been awarded an accolade for its maintenance of three different periods of architecture in its central city area. Separating the Eastern end of Bellecour from the River Rhone is a group of four storey stone buildings which originally were houses owned by the silk merchants of the 17th century (Figure 1). Now these four storey houses are divided into apartments. Each apartment consists of many rooms, each of which is large with high ceilings and lined by beautiful wood panelling. Each room has an ornately decorated fireplace. These apartments have been fully renovated by their present owners. The apartments on the fourth floor have nice views, but they are smaller than those on the lower floors and the ceilings are lower.

When the houses were first built, the owners lived in the rooms on the lower floors and the servants lived in the top floor. Across the Rue de la Barre to the North of this complex of buildings is the Hotel Dieu. This is still an active hospital. The oldest part of the Hotel Dieu was built during the 17th century when Bellecour and its surrounding houses were built. These buildings now house a museum which has exhibits demonstrating something of 17th century medicine. A number of epidemics of plague devastated Europe from the 1300’s to the 1600’s. A number of museums in Europe have models dressed like the one illustrated in the Hotel Dieu. This is a doctor in his clothes which were meant to protect him from the plague. In the pointed nosepiece they used to put sweet smelling scents. The halberds (pikes) beside the plague doctor were used by hospital guards to keep away non residents of Lyon.

Figure 2: A doctor dressed to treat victims of the plague. The Halberds were used by hospital guards to keep out non-Lyon residents.

Figure 3 shows a number of large copper bowls in which liquid medicines were mixed and then dispensed through the taps at the bottom of each bowl. The apothecaries jars contained various ingredients for these medicines. Figure 4 is a hospital bed made to take a number of patients, anything from four to seven. The sickest patients and those nearest to death were kept towards the sides of the bed.

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Figure 3: Large copper bowls for mixing medicines.

Figure 4: A bed to accomodate multiple patients, usually from four to seven.

A few years ago, a 12th century stone abbey on the Ile Barbe in the centre of the River Saone close to the central city area was divided into nine sections which were sold as separate entities. The new owners have set about renovating these buildings in the spirit of the era, but more luxuriously and with many more modern comforts than the original monks would have approved. This development further underlines the importance placed by the City Council on maintaining the heritage character of the city of Lyon (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Drawing of one of the nine buildings in the 12th century Abbey on the Ile Barbe.

One of the important former scientific and industrial institutions of Lyon is preserved in the Institut Lumiere at 25 Rue du Premier-Film (Figure 6). This was the home of the Lumiere Brothers who developed the first motion picture. The opening scene of this picture first screened in march 1895, showed the workers from the Lumiere Factory leaving work at the end of a day. The factory used to be in the grounds behind the house, but it has now been demolished except for the door which appeared in the opening scene of the film. A still picture of this scene is incorporated in the banner outside the Institut. This building is now a museum which houses historical documents and various pieces of photographic equipment used by the Lumiere Brothers.

Figure 6: Institut Lumiere at 25 Rue Du Premier-film, fronting the Park Lumiere. Below: Banner at the institute showing the opening scene of the first motion picture.

One ought not visit this part of France without visiting the local wine growing area - in this case the Beaujolais area North of Lyon around the town of Belleville. At the time of my visit, the vines were leafless and the farmers were doing routine runing work. One could imagine the beauty of the countryside in Spring and Summer when the gently rolling hills are covered with green vines.
The biggest wine merchant in the Beaujolais area is Le Hameau en Beaujolais. They have a museum (Figure 7) which shows the various processes in the manufacture of wine and an old locomotive with the tanks and casks used for transporting the wine in bulk to a bottling factory.

Figure 7: Le Hameau en Beaujolai - the largest wine merchant in the Beaujolais area.

Acknowledgement: The Curator of the Museum of the Hotel Dieu kindly gave permission for the author to take photographs in the Museum and to publish these.

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“The Night Watch” portrayed by a group of Amsterdam actors.

The Main Hall in the RAI Congress Centre was filled almost to capacity with delegates and associates. After a short speech of welcome by the Congress President, Jan van den Tweel, the audience was entertained with songs about Amsterdam. Then came the piece de resistance. Gary Schwartz, an Art Historian and Director of a Foundation for Museum Curators of Dutch and Flemish Art, gave an entertaining and scholarly talk which he called “Everything you always wanted to know about Amsterdam and Rembrandt”. The talk was illustrated by photographs of paintings by the famous Dutch and Flemish artists, together with scenes from Amsterdam in the 17th century and photographs of similar aspects of the city which he took a few weeks before giving this lecture.

Gary set the scene for the entry of the 25 year old Rembrandt from his home city of Leiden into the cosmopolitan city of Amsterdam, which at that time was one of the wealthiest and most powerful cities in the world. Rembrandt chose the genre of portraiture, in particular, group portraiture as his speciality. His first group portrait was a masterpiece which is still reproduced the world over. It is “The Anatomy Lesson”, completed in 1632.

Statue of Rembrandt in Leiden

The lecturer was Dr Nicolaes Tulp, a surgeon and anatomist in Amsterdam. He was well placed socially, and later became Burgomaster (Mayor) of the city. Undoubtedly, this association greatly assisted in making Rembrandt the most sought after portrait painter in Amsterdam. (With so many wealthy businessmen in the city wanting themselves recorded for posterity, many portrait painters were attracted there). Because of this pre-eminence, he charged a high fee for his services - 500 guilders for a full length portrait. This was the equivalent of a whole year’s salary for a skilled tradesman. During the ten years or so that he was at the height of his popularity, Rembrandt lived like a millionaire. In later life he became much less affluent, and sank into bankruptcy.

While “The Anatomy Lesson” is famous, his most famous group portrait is “The Night Watch”. This is a portrait of a guild of Musketeers - civic guardsmen (civilian soldiers). In Amsterdam at that time there were many similar guilds. They were usually based around the particular weapon that the guildsmen became experts in using - cross bow, hand (long) bow, musket etc. it was customary for the guilds to commission portrait painters to paint the group - just like group or team photographs today. “The Night Watch” was commissioned in 1642.
Quite frequently, becoming Captain of a company of Civic Guardsmen was a stepping stone to achieving a higher position in society. The Captain of the guard in “The Night Watch” was Franz Banning Cocq. In 1650 he became Burgomaster of Amsterdam.

The painting itself has had a chequered history in the 370 years since it was completed. It has suffered from the hands of inexpert restorers trying to preserve the surface of the painting with various types of varnish. Twice it was attacked by deranged viewers - one threw acid on it, and the other slashed it with a knife. In 1715, a piece was cut from each side so that it would fit better into the hanging space that had been allocated to it. Nowadays it is one of the most treasured possessions of the Rijksmuseum situated close to the centre of Amsterdam.
The lecture was splendid, but the denouement was yet to come. Before the lights of the lecture theatre came on again, and with the picture of “The Night Watch” still on the screen, there was a drumbeat from the rear of the theatre and two columns of costumed performers marched down the side aisles to the rhythmic beating of the drum and took up positions on the stage with their backs to the audience. At the signal of a special drum beat, the performers turned to face the audience, and at the same time the lights came on. This revealed a wonderful spectacle. Each performer was dressed like a figure in the painting, and each of them adopted exactly the same pose as their counterpart in the painting. The effect was magical.

Information for this article was kindly provided by Gary Schwartz himself, and by reading his recently completed book “The Night Watch in the Rijksmuseum”. The Editor strongly recommends this book to anyone who would like to know more about this subject. The photograph of “The Night Watch” was taken by the official photographer at the Congress. It is reproduced with his kind permission.

Robin Cooke

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The Editors of “Histopathology” with Miss Elizabeth Whelan, the Marketing Manager of Blackwell Publishing, celebrating a successful 25 years of collaboration. L-R. Roger Cotton (first), James Underwood (third and retiring), Mike Wells (newly appointed), Roddy Macsween (second), Elizabeth Whelan.

The journal was successful from its first edition, and some of the profits from the journal were paid to the Division. Over the years this money has allowed the British Division to support educational activities at home and abroad, in particular the Arab Division of the I.A.P. and the pathologists in Southern Africa.
In a further celebration of the 25th year of publication, “Histopathology” printed the abstracts and proceedings of the 24th International Congress of the I.A.P. in two splendidly produced supplements to the Journal.

Front page of Supplement Number 1

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