Tain L'Hermitage, France: Etablissement M�dical de La Teppe. La Teppe Medical Center

Abstract

During the second half of the 19th century in Europe a whole series of asylums for epileptics was created: 1857 La Teppe in France, 1867 Bethel in Germany, 1886 Zurich in Switzerland and 1892 Kork in Germany. La Teppe is, thus, the oldest of the Specialised Establishments for epileptics in Europe, and very probably in the world. Count Louis de Larnage, founder of La Teppe, was the inheritor and keeper of a ‘secret’ which was transmitted from generation to generation in his family. It was a treatment for epilepsy using an extract from a species of the rubiacae family: galium album, harvested on the nearby famous wine-growing slopes of Hermitage. The origin of this ‘Great Remedy’ is uncertain. The ‘secret’ is supposed to have been passed on to the de Larnage family 300 years previously by a knight returning from the Middle East. The great remedy was distributed freely twice a year, during the full moon of May and September. The Count de Larnage had a little gothic chapel built on his property (which can still be seen to this day), where 700 or 800 people gathered, twice a year, to drink a cup of Galium after celebrating mass. In 1881, a journalist wrote of this distribution in the great national daily newspaper, Le Figaro: ‘There was nothing sadder nor more curious than this spectacle. Many tried to hide their traits and their social condition, to avoid revealing to anyone the secret of their disease’. Moved by this parade of misery, Louis de Larnage conceived the project of an asylum for epileptics. Then he requested authorisation to open an establishment. He began the building work and had to start receiving patients from the autumn of 1857, even though the opening of the Establishment had been planned for the January 1, 1858 with only dozen or so patients. Very soon the Count fell prey to financial difficulties. This was due to the rapid growth in number of residents: 8 patients by the January 1, 1858, 70 patients on the January 1, 1859. It was also due to the cost of building the asylum, purchasing furniture, personnel costs and the upkeep of the patients. The family of the Count de Larnage feared their impending ruin. In the end, La Teppe was taken over by a religious order, the Compagnie des Sœurs de la Charite de Saint-Vincent de Paul, after authorisation by imperial decree. From then on the establishment was to develop regularly. In 1863, the home was run by 24 nuns; it accommodated 140 patients from 76 French departements and various foreign countries. Care of patients was shared between the Count de Larnage, who treated epilepsy (‘the Remedy, the treatment and the diet are distributed, applied and observed according to the indications of Monsieur the Count de Larnage’), and a doctor who ‘does his daily round to treat cases of illness or indisposition and to write his prescriptions’. In 1870, upon the death of its founder, the centre housed 187 patients. A section for children from 7 to 15 years old had been added to the adult sections. The ‘Great Remedy’ continued to be distributed twice a