Introduction

Julius Hirschberg (1843-1925), Pro-fessor of Ophthalmology at the University ofBerlin, published Geschichte der Augen-heilkunde [History of Ophthalmology] in se-rial editions in the Graefe SaemischHandbuch der Augenheilkunde between1899 and 1918. Over many years, the authorhad developed personal friendships withmany ophthalmologists and scientiststhroughout the world. He devoted much ofhis historical writings to innovators and dis-seminators of German concepts and tech-niques which he termed “Die Reform derAugenheilkunde” [The Reform of Ophthal-mology]. Important advances of the Reformhad included the introduction of ophthal-moscopy by Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) and iridectomy for acute glaucoma byhis mentor, Albrecht von Graefe (1828-1870).

As Hirschberg described in hisGeschichte, one of his esteemed friends andcolleagues was the German-born and edu-cated Édouard Meyer (1838–1902), likewise aprotégé of von Graefe.1 After three years ofwork in von Graefe’s clinic, Meyer departedBerlin for Paris on January 13, 1863, bring-ing modern, up-to-date German concepts andpractices to France. In a glowing letter of in-troduction, von Graefe rejoiced in statingthat Meyer had mastered “parfaitementtoutes les branches de l’ophtalmologie.”

Summaries of Meyer’s distinguishedcareer and his many accomplishments maybe found in Hirschberg’s writings and a vari-ety of other sources; salient details will bementioned below. This paper will further con-sider some aspects of Meyer’s family and per-sonal life, particularly those relating to thegenealogy of Meyer’s wife (Madame LéonieEsther Meyer, née Cohen) whose genealogyas a Rothschild was misstated by Hirschbergin a footnote in his Geschichte. The emenda-tion herein will also highlight a possible fa-milial connection of Meyer’s wife with thefamous French general, Maxime (de Nimal)Weygand (1867–1965).

Édouard MeyerBasic details of Meyer’s personal life

are found in an obituary written by his col-league and close friend, Henri Dor (1835–1912), in the Revue générale d’Ophtalmologie(Lyon) which had been co-founded and co-edited by Meyer and Dor in 1882.2 Anotherobituary which appeared in the ophthalmicliterature was written by Hirschberg in hisjournal, Centralblatt für praktische Augen-heilkunde.3 From Dor we learn that ÉdouardMeyer was born in Sandersleben in the Ger-man principality of Annhalt-Dessau (Saxony)on November 13, 1838 into a family of modestmeans. The Jewish faith of the family, andthe first names of his parents and many sib-lings were not mentioned. Meyer had oftenrecounted a story from his youth wherein he

1 Hirschberg, Julius. Geschichte der Augenheilkunde[History of Ophthalmology]. In Theodor Axenfeld andAnton Elschnig (eds.). Graefe Saemisch Handbuch dergesamten Augenheilkunde. Berlin: Julius Springer, 1918,vol 15, pt 1, §1267. III. Eduard Meyer, pp 497-499.

2 Dor, H. “Nécrologie: Édouard Meyer.” Revue généraled’Ophtalmologie 1902; 21: 385–390.3 Hirschberg, Julius. Eduard Meyer. Centralblatt fürpraktische Augenheilkunde 1902; 26: 285–286.

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A Footnote in Hirschberg’s History of Ophthalmology:

The Rothschilds and Ophthalmologist Dr. Édouard Meyer

David M. Reifler*

*David M. Reifler, MD, FACSMichigan State University College of Human Medicine, 3535 Lake Eastbrook Blvd. SE, Grand Rapids, MI, USA, 49546.Email: reifler@msu.edu.

Hist Ophthal Intern 2016, Vol.2: 27-38

set aside money earned from tutoring inorder to purchase candles for personal stud-ies in his room at night, apparently duringthe course of his primary education in Dessauand his university studies at the Universityof Berlin.

Meyer’s medical studies includedwork in von Graefe’s clinic in 1859 even be-fore he received his M.D. degree from the uni-versity on October 13, 1860, and he remainedwith von Graefe for post-graduate trainingthrough 1862. Von Graefe was only ten yearsolder than Meyer and had begun his practiceof ophthalmology on November 1, 1850 (atage twenty-two) in an inconspicuous houseon Behrenstrasse in Berlin, soon thereafterreceiving some of the first available ophthal-moscopes from von Helmholtz of Königs-berg.4 Von Graefe achieved a position ofpreeminence in ophthalmology within a shorttime; two of his notable students, Louis deWecker (1832-1906) and Richard Liebreich(1830-1917), were not far ahead of Meyer inthe Berlin clinic and in preceding Meyer toParis to establish practices. Hirschberg statesthat of the three, “only E. Meyer receivedGraefe’s complete compassion.” Von Graefe’srecommendations carried much weight andhe furthermore had many personal contactsin Paris where he had sojourned for twentymonths during his own post-graduate studiesincluding time spent with the German-bornophthalmologist Jules Sichel (1802-1868).According to Dor’s aforementioned obituaryof Meyer, the young émigré worked diligentlyto pass additional doctoral examinations inParis, receiving his degree on February 27,1864 with a 105-page thesis entitled, “Dustrabisme et du succès de la ténotomie.”

Beginning soon after his French cer-tifications in 1864, Meyer began teachingcourses at the École pratique and in clinicalconferences at his clinic on the rue de l’Anci-enne-Comédie. He later taught in the clinicsof the Dispensaire Furtado-Heine where hewas head of ophthalmology and where he reg-ularly published annual reports. Along withhis colleagues, de Wecker and Liebreich,Meyer’s presence and teaching in Parishelped to disseminate the concepts of von

Graefe. At this early point in his career,Meyer further published an illustrated, 400-page French translation of his mentor’s text-book, Clinique ophtalmologique par A. deGraefe (1866) which Hirschberg described asa “meritorious service.”

In 1865, in the midst of establishinghimself in Paris, Meyer successfully answeredthe call of a military physician-colleague tovisit a Parisian barracks and treat an epi-demic of trachoma, resulting in the emperorconferring upon him the Cross of the Legionof Honor at the young age of twenty-seven.When Meyer was presented to the emperor,the latter reportedly stated « Si je vous avaissu aussi jeune, je vous aurais fait attendre. »[If I knew you were so young I would havehad you wait]. Despite his youth, Meyer wasalready showing signs of heart disease - diag-nosed as “hypertrophie du cœur” - and at amilitary-medical physical examination of July16, 1866, he was officially exempted from mil-itary service. Thereafter, over the course ofmany years, Meyer was unable to shake theimpact of this diagnosis and, on more thanone occasion, he told his friend Dor that hewas counting on him to raise his children.

The Rothschilds, Édouard Meyer, and His Wife

A footnote in Hirschberg’s Geschichterecounts an anecdote about Meyer and “deralte Rothschild” [the old Rothschild] presum-ably in reference to the founder of the Frenchbranch of the famous banking family, BaronJames Mayer de Rothschild (1792–1868).However, by the time this final installment ofthe Geschichte was published, even EdmondJames de Rothschild (1845-1935), theyoungest son of “der alte Rothschild,” wasseventy-three years old. The footnote readsas follows in the original German and anEnglish translation, respectively:

Der alte Rothschild, der in Kleinigkeiten sehrsparsam war, nahm den Arm seines Augen-Doktors Eduard Meyer, und, indem er ihmsagte, « das wird Ihnen nicht schaden », ginger mit ihm über die Boulevards spazieren.Übrigens hatte E. M. in der Rothschild’schenFamilie seine Lebensgefährtin gefunden.

[The old Rothschild who was quite parsimo-

4 Snyder, Charles. “Dr. Albrecht von Graefe in Behren-strasse will treat free of charge the eye diseases of thepoor.” In Our Ophthalmic Heritage. Boston: Little,Brown and Company, 1967, pp 13‒17.

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nious in little affairs, took the arm of his eyedoctor Eduard Meyer, and told him « this isnot going to harm you » while taking him fora promenade on the boulevards. Meyer’s wifewas a member of the Rothschild family].5

This curious footnote raises severalquestions.

- What was the place of the rendezvous be-tween Meyer and Baron Rothschild,the date of this promenade, and thecontext of their conversation? - Did the conversation involve ca-reer advice such as Meyer’s even-tual purchase of the practice ofJules Sichel which soon providedMeyer with an enormous volume ofpatients? - Had there been a similar,earlier connection between Sicheland Baron Rothschild who wereboth born in Frankfurt am Main? - As Sichel apparently worked up tothe time of his death, was the saleof his practice contemplated or con-summated prior to his death? - Did the conversation betweenMeyer and Baron Rothschild in-volve marital advice or other familymatters? - Why does Madame Meyer not ap-pear in the genealogies of theFrench Rothschild branch or anyother branch of the Rothschild family?

Regarding potential sites of ren-dezvous and promenade routes, one may con-sider the location of Rothschild’s bankingheadquarters and magnificent mansion inParis on rue Lafitte in the 9th arrondisse-ment. This was not far from the eventual lo-cation of Meyer’s clinic at 73 boulevardHaussmann in the adjacent 8th arrondisse-ment. The stately building was then (and stillis) next to a beautiful little park which is thehome of the expiatory chapel of Louis XVIand Marie Antoinette (Figure 1). If Sichel’spractice was discussed between Meyer andRothschild during a promenade, it could haveoccurred only before Rothschild’s death onNovember 15, 1868 and before Sichel’s deathon November 11, 1868 (just four days before

“der alte Rothschild”) but not long before asSichel worked until close to his last days. Apurported topic of marriage is also specula-tive and potentially problematic. ÉdouardMeyer married twenty-year-old Léonie Es-ther Cohen who came from very wealthy Jew-ish families of Marseille (France) and Livorno(Italy). Both sides of her family were, attimes, involved in banking activities butwithout any direct connection to the Roth-

schild banking houses. No evidence has beendiscovered to suggest that Baron de Roth-schild had a hand in the introduction ofÉdouard Meyer to Mademoiselle LéonieCohen. Perhaps, however, the eligible youngwoman was known to the Rothschild family:Baron James de Rothschild; Baronne Bettede Rothschild; or even their unmarried chil-dren such as the youngest son, Edmond, whowas about her age.

In a later biographical encyclopedia,a summary written by W. Haberling aboutMeyer accurately recounted the ophthalmol-ogist’s professional career and accomplish-ments without much comment on personaland private matters.6 Eighty years after

5 Hirschberg, Julius. The History of Ophthalmology.Translated by Frederick C. Blodi. Bonn: Jean-PaulWayenborgh, 1992, vol 11, pt 1‒c, §1267. III. EduardMeyer, pp 627–629 et seq.

6 Hirsch, August. Biographisches Lexikon der hervor-rangenden Ärzte aller Zeiten und Völker (German),originally published and edited [Durchgeschen und er-ganzt] in 1932 by W. Haberling, F. Hübotter, and H.Vierordt; original entry by Prof. W. Haberling; specialredaction ed. by E. Gurlt and A. Wernich. Munich‒Ber-lin: Verlag von Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1962, vol. 4

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Figure 1. Modern appearance of the building which housed Meyer’s private hos-pital and clinic, 73 boulevard Haussmann, 8th arrondissement, Paris, France.

Meyer’s death and relying upon Hirschberg’ssixty-four year-old footnote, George Gorinstated (at least partially in error) that “Meyerwas the ophthalmologist of the Rothschildsand married into that influential family.”7

James Ravin erroneously embel-lished the importance of the marriage, pin-pointing Madame Meyer’s origins as “theFrench branch of the Rothschild family,which brought [Édouard Meyer] additionalsocial status.”8

It seems quite unlikely that misinfor-mation about the lineage of Meyer’s wifecame directly from Meyer. Rather than con-ferring any additional social status, the publicdissemination of this misinformation wouldhave been a source of severe embarrassmentto the Parisian ophthalmologist. Rather, it ismore likely that details of the anecdotalpromenade and the wealthy banker-father ofMadame Meyer became conflated inHirschberg’s mind by the time he wroteabout it years after the death of ÉdouardMeyer. An additional footnote in Hirschberg’sGeschichte underscores the “close relation-ship” between the two ophthalmologists andintimates an inadvertent nature of the error.This footnote is likewise quoted in both Ger-man and English, respectively:

Auch mir hat er, so oft ich in Paris gewesen,die größte Freundlichkeit bewiesen. Da wiraus derselben Schule hervorgegangen und na-hezu gleichaltrig waren, so hatten wir natür-lich die besten Beziehungen zu einander.Einige seiner nächsten Verwandten habe ichoperirt und behandelt.

[He was most hospitable to me whenever Iwas in Paris. We both came from the sameschool and were nearly of the same age. Wetherefore had a close relationship. I operatedand treated some of his close relatives.]Hirschberg’s affinity for his francophone col-leagues is reflected in his election to member-ship in the Société française d’Ophtalmologie

[French Ophthalmological Society] in 1883during the first months of the society’s exis-tence.9 The establishment of the Société hadinitially been suggested by Paul Chibret(1844-1911) of Clermont-Ferrand. Its found-ing bylaws specified membership criteria un-restricted by nationality. Meyer hadparticipated in the establishment of the soci-ety and the annual publication of its Bulletinset Mémoires. The French society and its by-laws were modeled after the older DeutscheOphthalmologishen Gesellschaft [GermanOphthalmological Society].10

[Maack‒Salzmann], p 192.7 Gorin, George. History of Ophthalmology. Publish orPerish, Wilmington, Delaware, 1982, p 190.8 James G. Ravin. “The statesman, the artist, and theophthalmologist: Clemenceau, Lautrec, and Meyer.”JAMA Ophthalmology formerly Archives of Ophthal-mology 1999; 117: 951‒54, downloaded from http://ar-chopht.jamanetwork.com/ on March 23, 2016.

9 Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société française d’Oph-talmologie. 1883; 1: 1‒14 & 124‒125.10 Rohrbach JM. “Festvortrag im Rahmen des Festak-tes anlässlich der 105. Zusammekunft und des 150. Ge-burtstages der DOG, Berlin, 21. September 2007. ‘150Jahre DOG: Danken ‒ gedenken ‒ Gedanken,’ Ceremo-nial Lecture on the Occasion of DOG in Berlin, 2007.”Klinische Monatsblätter für Augenheilkunde 2007; 224:871–880, DOI 10.1055/s-2007-963635.

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Figure 2: First issue of the Bulletins et Mémoires of thenewly founded French Society of Ophthalmology. Foun-dation members were Abadie, Armaignac, Chibret,Coppez, Gayet, Meyer, Panas and Poncet as secretary ofthe new society.

(Wayenborgh Collection)

Édouard Meyer, His Oculist Brother,and His Students

Although Ravin’s aforementioned ar-ticle stumbled a bit on the topic of Meyer’swife, his research brought to light some veryfascinating information about an individualwho appears to have been the brother ofÉdouard Meyer. This individual -first nameunknown - was an itinerant fitter of specta-cles - an oculist of sorts though not a physi-cian. He appears to have been the model forthe oculist in the short story, “Comment jedevins presbyte” [How I became presbyopic],by Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929), thephysician-politician-journalist and futureprime minister of France (1906-1909 and1917-1920). Clemenceau’s short story ini-tially appeared in a periodical in 1894 andwas published four years later in an anthol-ogy of six short stories entitled, Au Pied duSinaï [At the Foot of Mount Sinai] which wasillustrated by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec(1864-1901) including a lithograph depictingClemenceau being fitted for spectacles.11

Ravin presented strong evidence thatClemenceau’s literary caricature of Mayer[sic], and Lautrec’s lithographic caricaturewere based upon the brother of ÉdouardMeyer who “worked in the shadow of his fa-mous brother, and benefited from his fame.”

He cited a series of advertisementspublished in a periodical of Dijon, France in1874 announcing the arrival of “MonsieurMeyer, oculist from Paris, brother of the cele-brated oculist Dr. Meyer, Professor of Ophthal-mology at the Practical School [Écolepratique] of the Paris Faculty of Medicine,Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.” In yet an-other footnote in his Geschichte, Hirschbergstated that the École pratique “provided anydoctor of the faculty a room for lecturing, if heso desired. This was a pleasant solution andreplaced an academic rank.” Perhaps grudg-ingly, the Berlin professor acknowledged the“misused custom” of lecturers taking the

right to call themselves professors; this isseen in the advertisements of ÉdouardMeyer’s brother and in contemporary worksby Édouard Meyer himself (Figure 2).

The second son of Édouard Meyer,Henri-Édouard Meyer, followed his fatherinto a career in ophthalmology. Dor recordedthat the father had inspired the thesis of hisson, a contribution on the study of the scin-tillating scotoma of ophthalmic migraine(Paris, 1896). Édouard Meyer had hoped that

11 Clemenceau, Georges. Au Pied du Sinaï. Illustrationsby Henri de Toulouse Lautrec. Paris: Chamerot et Re-nouard for Henri Floury, 1898.

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Figure 3: Hirschberg amongst the new members of the Société, theyear of its foundation. On the next page we see also the names ofSedan (Alger), Wicherkerkiewicz (Posen) and Ribeiro-Santo (Bahia).This notice is dated Paris, May 1883.

Figure 4: Title page of Meyer’s Traité des opérations quise pratiquent sur l’œil (1870)

his son would take over his practice and con-tinue his work, but Henri died at the youngage of thirty of tuberculosis. Édouard Meyeralso suffered from tuberculosis and in his lastyears he therefore placed the management ofhis clinic in the hands of Parisian ophthal-mologist-musician-composer Pierre-AlbertKopff (1846-1908) of the Hôpital Saint-Joseph and the Furtado Heine Dispensary.12

According to Dor, Meyer had inspiredthe doctoral theses of other students evenprior to the tutelage of his son, namely De-boys [Dubois] de Lavigerie, Caudron, and De-bierre. An additional student of Meyer whohad connections with both the Rothschildfamily and Meyer was Aharon Meir Mazie(1858-1930).13

Mazie was a polymath engineer andphysician of Eastern-European Jewish originwho had just graduated from the Universityof Zurich Medical School with a published the-sis and recommendations from his late profes-sor, Johann Friedrich Horner (1831-1886).

Mazie studied ophthalmology withMeyer between January and October 1888with particular research interests in tra-choma which was especially endemic in theNear East. On July 24, 1888, through thehelp of Meyer and Paris Chief Rabbi ZadokKahn (1839-1905), Mazie had a successfulemployment interview with Baron Edmondde Rothschild at his mansion on rue Lafittewherein he was hired to serve as the physi-

cian for all of Rothschild’s settlements (or“colonies”). Mazie immigrated to Palestine inOctober 1888 as part of the so-called FirstAliyah.14

Publications of Édouard Meyer

The writings of Hirschberg and Dor maybe consulted for lengthy lists of Meyer’s jour-nal publications on a wide range of ophthal-mologic topics. The publication of Meyer’sthesis, Du strabisme (1863/4) and the Frenchtranslation of von Graefe’s Clinique ophtal-mologique (1866) have been mentionedabove. Meyer’s interest in teaching in hisclinic and at the École pratique is reflected inthree textbooks: first a textbook on refractionand accommodation, Leçons sur la Réfractionet l’Accommodation (1869)(Figure 5);15 a text-book of ophthalmic surgery, Traité des opéra-tions qui se pratiquent sur l´Oeil (1870);16

and Traité pratique des maladies des yeux(1873)17 which appeared in many subsequenteditions and translations (as enumeratedbelow).

Traité des opérations (1870) wasrichly illustrated and included several photo-graphs by Monsieur A. de Montméja, the oph-thalmologist-director of an innovativephotographic clinic at the Hôpital Saint-Louis. Hirschberg stated that the book soldfor forty francs making this a rather expen-sive book. Almost 150 years later, this workwas featured in an exhibition by the Ameri-can Academy of Ophthalmology’s Museum of

12 “Membres décédé. MM. Kopff (Paris). Fouchard(Mans).” Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société françaised’Ophtalmologie 1908; 25: lxxiv; Sitzmann, Édouard.Dictionnaire de Biographie des hommes célèbres del’Alsace, vol. 2. Rixheim: Alsace, F. Sutter & Cie, 1910pp 68‒69. Albert Kopff was born in Benfeld (Bas-Rhin),Alsace on December 22, 1846. He graduated with hismedical degree from the École de Santé Militaire deStrasbourg in 1870 with a thesis on nicotine and imme-diately was called into service in the defense of Metzduring the Franco-Prussian War. He served as a mili-tary physician in Algeria for several years and, after1885, in Paris where he specialized in ophthalmology.He served as chief in the celebrated clinic of XavierGalezowski (1832‒1907). In 1897, Kopff established hisown practice of ophthalmology in Paris on the Avenuede Messine. Kopff was equally accomplished as a pi-anist and composer. As an arranger he would use thepseudonym, A. Benfeld. He was a friend of Saint-Saens,who dedicated to him the Suite algérienne.13 Barak, Smadar. H�amesh ‘Atarot: Dr. Aharon Mazie,“Rofe ha-Lashon ha-‘Ivrit” [Five Crowns: Dr. AharonMeir Mazie, “Physician of the Hebrew Language”] (He-brew). Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 5774/2013.

14 Reifler, David. Days of Ticho: Empire, Mandate, Med-icine and Art in the Holy Land. Jerusalem: Gefen Pub-lishing, 2015. In 1882, Baron Rothschild had begun toassume control of several Jewish Palestinian settle-ments. In 1887, he and wife Baronne Adelaide visitedthe Holy Land for the first time, the year before Maziewas hired and sent to Palestine. Mazie was initiallybased in Rishon Letziyon but visited many other settle-ments. By the time of the so-called Second Aliyah be-fore World War I, Mazie was working in Jerusalem, acontemporary of much younger ophthalmologists suchas Albert Ticho (1883‒1960) and Aryeh Feigenbaum(1885‒1981). 15 Meyer, Édouard. Maladies des Yeux. Leçons sur laRéfraction et l’Accommodation: Professées a l’ÉcolePratique de la Faculté de Médecine de Paris [Lectureson the Accommodation and Refraction of the Eye](French). Paris: Librairie Chamerot et Lauwereyns,1869.16 Meyer, Édouard. Traité des opérations qui se prati-quent sur l’œil. Photographs by A. de Montméja. Paris:H. Lauwereyns, 1870.17 Meyer, Édouard. Traité pratique des maladies desyeux. Paris: H. Lauwereyns, 1873.

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Vision as an example of one of the earliestmedical works to extensively use photographsin the explication of techniques and con-cepts.18 In addition to the 109 illustrations onwoodcuts interspersed in Traité des opéra-tions, there were twenty-two hand tipped-inphotographic plates. One of these plates is ofa posed group, Meyer seated and performingophthalmic surgery on a patient in the com-pany of three assistants or observers (Figure6). Given technical limitations of the day andthe high quality photographic images pre-sented, the several close-up photographs ofMeyer’s “surgeries” at the Hôpital Saint-Louis certainly used cadavers posed as thepatients (Figure 6). The publication of this

work coincided with tremendous social andpolitical turmoil - war, the end of the SecondEmpire - but as social order was reestab-lished, Édouard Meyer was made a natural-ized citizen of the French Third Republichaving remained in the French capitalthroughout the Siege of Paris and the Com-mune.19

Traité pratique des maladies des yeux,Meyer’s most successful textbook, wentthrough several editions and translations:four French editions were published in Paris(1873, 1883, 1887 and 1895) (Figures 7, 8,and 9); the first of three German editions inBerlin (1879); English editions in Philadel-phia (1883)20 and London (1887); and, accord-ing to Hirschberg, there were translationsalso into Spanish, Italian, Greek, Russian,and Polish. Hirschberg cited many favorablecontemporary reviews. He personally felt

18 “Picturing the Eye: Ophthalmic Film and Photogra-phy.” American Academy of Ophthalmology Museum ofVision Exhibitions. http://museumofvision.org/exhibi-tions/, accessed March 23, 2016.

19 De Wecker, L[ouis]. “The Eye of Gambetta” [Trans-lated from the French by Thomas M. Dolan]. MidlandMedical Miscellany and Provincial Medical Journal1882; 2 (No. 16/April 2, 1883):103‒104. At the outbreakof the Franco-Prussian War in July 1870, Meyer leftFrance for Vernex, Switzerland, but he returned toParis on September 1st just as Napoleon III and theFrench cavalry charged to its defeat at the Battle ofSedan in the Ardennes. That week in Paris, Meyer wit-nessed the proclamation of the French Third Republicby Léon Gambetta, a one-eyed politician who was a pa-tient of Meyer’s colleague, Louis de Wecker.20 Meyer, Édouard. A Practical Treatise on Diseases ofthe Eye. Translated by Freeland Fergus. Philadelphia:P. Blakiston, Son & Co., 1887.

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Figure 5: Title page of Meyer's Leçons sur la Réfraction et l’Ac-commodation (1869)

(Wayenborgh Collection)

Figure 6: Édouard Meyer (seated) with colleagues, posing with acadaver as if performing surgery. From Traité des opérations(1870). Photograph by A. de Montméja.

that Albrecht von Graefe’s teachings werepresented in a comprehensive, easily under-standable fashion, and he noted that the very

few initial mistakes were eliminated even bythe time of the first German edition. TheRevue générale d’Ophtalmologie (founded1870 by Meyer and Dor) also achieved a last-ing legacy when it was merged into theArchives d’Ophtalmologie in 1936, manyyears after each of the co-founders’ deaths.

Madame Léonie Esther Meyer, née Cohen

According to Gilbert Bloch, on March24, 1866, twenty-seven-year-old ÉdouardMeyer married Léonie Esther Cohen who wasthree weeks shy of her twenty-first birthday.21

Léonie was born in Marseille to afamily of considerable wealth and means. Herfather, David de Léon Cohen (1820-1891)(Figure 10), was an entrepreneurialbusinessman of Marseille who played a sig-nificant role in the development of commer-cial relations between that city and Morocco.He did not confine his activities to just importand export but, for a period of time, was alsoactive as an arms dealer and bank director.

Léonie’s Meyer’s paternal great-grandfather, Moïse Mardochée Cohen (1770-1859), was born in Vaucluse at21 Bloch, Gilbert: David de Léon Cohen, négociant, ar-

mateur et banquier Marseillais (Gênes, 25 juin 1820 –Marseille, 8 août 1891). Provence Historique 1996; 46(183): 27–56.

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Figure 7: Meyer´s Traité pratique des Maladies des Yeux,here in its first edition, became one of the most popularFrench ophthalmic treatises of that period of time.

(Wayenborgh Collection)

Figure 8: Meyer´s Strabometer, illustration from thesecond edition of the Traité Pratique, Paris (1880)

(Wayenborgh Collection)

Figure 9: Meyer´s Perimeter, wood cut inthe second edition of the Traité Pratique,

Paris (1880)(Wayenborgh Collection)

Isle-sur-Sorgue toward the end of the periodwhen the Comtat (County) Venaissin and itsJewish population were still under the con-trol and protection of the pope.

Léonie’s paternal grandfather, busi-nessman Léon Cohen (1794-1859) was bornin Avignon to French parents who becamenaturalized citizens of France through theannexation of the Comtat in 1791. Sometimeafter 1794, in the wake of greater freedomsand Napoleonic conquests, the Cohen familymigrated to Genoa where Léon grew to ma-turity and married. His wife, Esther, gavehim several children including David whowas born there on June 25, 1820 (Figure 5).Although Genoa had been lost to France withthe defeat of Napoleon, young David couldclaim French citizenship through his father,Léon and his grandfather, Moïse. David andgrandfather Moïse migrated back to Franceand settled in Marseille, while other familymembers -including father Léon and Leon’solder married sister Rosine Arbib- migratedfurther away from France along the Liguriancoast, settling in Livorno. Through the courseof their migrations, the family developed sev-eral exclusive trading concessions in Moroccowhile maintaining interests in Italy andTunisia. Perhaps these interests eventuallyinvolved a marital match.

The mother of Léonie Esther Meyer,Rachel Cohen (née Jalfon, 1819-1890), camefrom an equally prosperous family of Livorno,Italy to where Léon Cohen had migrated. TheJalfon family (Jalfoni in Italian) had variousmonopolies and concessions over commercial

relations with Tunisia. Rachel Cohen’s par-ents - i.e., Madame Meyer’s maternal grand-parents - Léon Jalfon and AllegraAnchiovotti, died in 1835 and 1844, respec-tively, leaving Rachel Jalfon a wealthy and eli-gible twenty-five year old orphan. Almostexactly nine months following the marriage ofRachel Jalfon and David de Léon Cohen in Mar-seille, Madame Cohen gave birth to her onlychild, Léonie, in Marseille on April 15, 1845.

The marriage of David and RachelCohen, however, was not a happy one. Di-vorce in France was against the law in thosedays, but the couple legally separated in 1855after eleven years of marriage. Both of theseparated spouses were unable to remarryuntil divorce was reinstituted in France in1884 and only David remarried.22 Remainingin Marseille, David Cohen kept a statelyhome (“la Maison Blanche”) in the Sainte-Marguerite Banlieue de Marseille on cheminde Saint-Tronc. At various times he alsomaintained residences in town. DavidCohen’s personal attention to his Jewishfaith was tenuous but he was generous to-ward Jewish charities and supported the con-struction of the Synagogue of Marseille,begun on September 22, 1864.

Léonie was just ten years old at thetime of the separation of her parents in 1855when Rachel Cohen returned to Livorno,Italy. Custody, domicile, and educationarrangements for Léonie have not been fullyresearched, but she does not appear in censusdata for her father’s households. However, itis not clear how much time she spent inLivorno with her mother and what roleLéonie’s father played in her life. The lastwill of David de Léon Cohen combined withpatriarchal laws and customs suggest a con-tinuing relationship. Despite a brief down-turn in his fortunes in the early 1880s, theestate of David Cohen was again secure bythe time of his death in 1891. 22 The physician, chemist, and politician, Alfred Naquet(1834‒1916), a former professor at the Faculty of Medi-cine in Paris (and Palermo), was the leading politicalforce behind the reinstitution of divorce in France.After a sixty-eight-year ban, divorce was reestablishedin France by legislative act on July 27, 1884. At thetime of his political success, Naquet represented Vau-cluse in his native region of Avignon. Along with manynotable physicians, Naquet is pictured in the famousgroup tableau painting of a Charcot demonstration,“Une leçon clinique à la Salpêtrière” [A Clinical Lessonat the Salpêtrière], by Pierre Brouillet (1887).

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Figure 10: Meyer’s father-in-law, David de Léon Cohen in1879. Photograph by

Camille Brion, Marseille.

Cohen’s will provided a fifty percentshare to his second wife with the remainderdivided among the three children of Édouardand Léonie Meyer.

Following the wedding of LéonieCohen and Dr. Édouard Meyer in March1866, the couple made their home in Parisand raised three children to maturity - twosons and one daughter - Léon, Henri-Édouard who has been mentioned, and Hen-riette. Madame Léonie Meyer suffered fromGraves’ disease, ophthalmic signs of whichwould have been recognized by her husband.She died in Paris on January 4, 1890 at theage of forty-five, survived by her husband,her three children, and her parents, but pre-deceasing her mother by only a few days andher father by nineteen months. PerhapsGraves’ disease-associated problems or tuber-culosis contracted from her husband con-spired to cut her life short.

Dor wrote that during the several lastyears of his life, Édouard Meyer wintered at hiscountry home in Sainte-Marguerite outside ofMarseille [near where his wife, Léonie, had spenther childhood], and he summered in the coolmountains of Switzerland.

On July 27, 1902, six weeks beforehis death, Meyer wrote to Dor from a sanitar-ium in Falkenstein outside of Frankfurt Ger-many, “I have been here a fortnight, andaccording to colleagues here, I should stay forthe entire month of August. I don’t complain,because I very much enjoy the stay, but thisis not [your beloved] Switzerland, which Imust give up forever with the greatest of re-grets. Naturally, I will not be able to go toHeidelberg… and I cannot insist that youvisit me here because of the obligatory silencewhich is a part of my treatment, renderingvisits rather tiresome.”

On August 26, Meyer thanked Dorfor sending analyses and a report of the meet-ing at Heidelberg [August 4-6, 1902] whichwere kindly given to him by Theodor Axen-feld (1867-1930) on his way back toFreiberg.23

Meyer died two weeks later on Sep-tember 9, 1902.

David de Léon Cohen, His Second Wife, and

Maxime (de Nimal) Weygand

David de Léon Cohen has attracted the at-tention of historians because of his role aslegal guardian of a youth named Maxime deNimal (later surnamed Weygand; 1867–1965)who went on to become an important generalof the French Army in both World Wars. Thecircumstances of Weygand’s presumably ille-gitimate birth have been explained by mytho-logical speculations of noble and even royalparentage.24 Throughout his life Weygandmaintained he did not know the identity ofhis parents. The mysterious back story of hisorigins (and the cover stories which evolvedduring his childhood) ultimately facilitatedhis military career and advancement to thearmy’s highest echelons. The aforementionedresearch of Gilbert Bloch pieces together theevidence and chronology, making a strongcase that Maxime Weygand was the son ofDavid de Léon Cohen and his longtime part-ner and eventual wife, Thérèse JoséphineDenimal (1837-1919)(Figure 11).

As an infant, Maxime de Nimal (thesurname divided into two words), wasbrought from Brussels to Marseille, ostensiblyto be raised by a widow, Virginie Saget, whowas in Mr. Cohen’s employ and lived in an ad-jacent domicile. Cohen provided an excellentprimary education for the child, leading to hisenrollment as a foreign (Belgian) cadet at theÉcole spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr. Mean-while, the Naquet divorce law was passed onJuly 27, 1884 and on April 8, 1885, after a co-

23 Greeff, Richard. “Report of the Meeting of the Ger-man Ophthalmological Society at Heidelberg, August4‒6, 1902. Translated by Dr. Ward A. Holden. Archivesof Ophthalmology 1903; 32: 31‒50, including pp 43‒44describing Axenfeld’s first public demonstration of in-

trascleral nerve loops which originate from the ciliarynerves (so-called Axenfeld nerve loops).24 Paoli, Dominique. Maxime ou le secret Weygand.Brussels: Éditions Racine, 2003, pp 15 & 206. Manyspeculative and even fanciful theories have been ad-vanced regarding the mysterious birth origins ofMaxime de Nimal, the future General Maxime Wey-gand: the illegitimate son of either Empress Carlota ofMexico (1840‒1927) or her lady-in-waiting, MélanieMetternich-Zichy (1832‒1819), by General Alfred Vander Smissen (1823‒1895); as the illegitimate son of aPolish mistress of Leopold II King of the Belgians(1835‒1909) who was Empress Carlota’s brother anddubiously acquainted with David de Léon Cohen; KingLeopold’s Polish mistress; and as briefly describedherein, the legitimate son of Joseph Leroy (b. 1829)and laundress Hortense-Joséphine Denimal (b. 1823).

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habitating relationship of two decades, Davidde Léon Cohen (age 65) married Mademoi-selle Denimal (age 45). There was no religiousceremony as Cohen was Jewish and his bridewas Catholic. In October 1888, two monthsbefore Maxime received a commission as asecond lieutenant in the 4th Cavalry Regi-ment, his paternity was “discovered” and ac-knowledged by one of Cohen’s bookkeepers,François-Joseph Weygand. By establishingFrench instead of Belgian citizenship,Maxime Weygand could receive an appoint-ment as an instructor at the prestigious Écolede Cavalerie de Saumur and it opened impor-tant paths for a future military career.25

Family and Origins of Mademoiselle Denimal.

Thérèse-Joséphine Denimal wasborn in suburban Brussels on November 12,1837 (St.-Josse Ten Noode, Banlieue of Brus-sels), the ninth of ten children. Her father,Constant-Joseph Denimal (b. 1789), was agardener born near the towns of Bouchainand Cambrai in the area of northern France,south of the city of Lille not far from the Bel-gian border. Her mother, Marie BarbeJoséphine Dumont was born in Courbevoie,a town just northwest of central Paris (itssouthern portion now within La Défense). In1844, the Constant-Joseph Denimal familymigrated back to France, including Thérèse’solder sister, Hortense Denimal.26

Soon after David de Léon Cohen diedin 1891, veuve Thérèse Cohen departed Mar-seille for Paris, where she could remain closeto her extended family. From there she wouldhave followed Maxime Weygand’s rise intothe upper echelons of the French Army. As a

junior officer, Weygand had ironically beenamong the most vocal antidreyfusard (andperhaps, therefore, anti-Semitic) members ofhis regiment during the years of the DreyfusAffair. This was in spite of his confirmed con-nections as a prior ward of David Cohen orperhaps because of them. No portion of theCohen’s over 650,000-franc net estate hadbeen left to him, and, as Bloch commented,this was in comparison to the annual salaryof a French Army second lieutenant in thatera of about 2,500 francs. In contrast, the rec-ognized surviving grandchildren of DavidCohen - the three children of Édouard Meyerand Cohen’s deceased legitimate daughterLéonie Esther Meyer - divided half of his es-tate. The first half of the estate had gone tohis second wife, Thérèse Cohen who probablyprovided some ongoing support to Weygand inthe early, leaner years of his military career.

Thérèse Cohen lived to see the end ofWorld War I, indeed long enough to learn thatGeneral Maxime Weygand had personallyread the terms of the armistice to his Germancounterparts at Compiègne in the earlymorning hours of November 11, 1918. WhenThérèse Cohen née Denimal died in Paris onSeptember 7, 1919, General Weygand payedthe costs of her funeral and interment in aCourbevoie cemetery in the company of herparents. She chose this over a previously re-served plot in the Saint-Pierre cemetery ofMarseille, just outside of but adjacent to theJewish cemetery and the final resting placeof David Cohen. Perhaps it was personallyfortuitous for Weygand and his two sons,Édouard and Jacques Weygand, that no issueof his mysterious, possibly Jewish lineage hadever been a part of the general’s record. Dur-ing World War II, after a brief period of col-laboration, General Weygand decidedly fellout of favor with the conquering Nazi regime.

Conclusion

An error has been discovered in afootnote in Julius Hirschberg’s History ofOphthalmology regarding the family originsof the wife of ophthalmologist ÉdouardMeyer. Rather than tracing her origins to thefamily of Baron James de Rothschild, the lin-eage of Madame Léonie Esther Meyer (néeCohen) was found in descriptions of success-ful business and trading families of Marseilleand Livorno who had only minor or short-

25 Singer, Barnett. Maxime Weygand: A Biography ofthe French General in Two World Wars. Jefferson, NC:McFarland & Co., 2008.26 Fouvez, Charles. Le mystère Weygand. Paris, LaTable Rond, 1967. Hortense Denimal (b. May 5, 1823)gave birth to the daughter of Félix Dievoet, HenrietteLouise Van Dievoet (b. January 11, 1846) who was le-gitimized through the marriage of the couple in Parison May 10, 1848. Félix, Hortense, and young Henriettereturned to Brussels that month but Felix died justtwenty days later on May 30, 1848. Hortense eventu-ally remarried on April 2, 1857 to Joseph Leroy (b.1829), but she apparently led a rough-and-tumble lifein difficult circumstances and neighborhoods. Thisolder sister of Thérèse Cohen née Denimal has there-fore also been implicated as the possible mother ofMaxime Weygand.

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lived banking activities. Hirschberg’s errorwas probably based upon faulty recollectionsof personal conversations with Meyer manyyears after the latter’s death, whereby he per-haps conflated several stories: Meyer’s pro-fessional services to the Rothschilds; aninteresting anecdote of a doctor-patientpromenade; and Madame Meyer’s family ofbusinessmen, successful though at a level farbelow the astounding wealth of the Roth-schild family.

Further study of the intersections ofbetween the Rothschild family, ÉdouardMeyer, and Meyer’s student Aharon Maziemay shed light on proto-Zionist activities inParis during the latter part of the nineteenthcentury. Meanwhile a reexamination ofMeyer’s professional career and private lifehas revealed a surprising familial connectionbetween Meyer’s wife and General MaximeWeygand. If the histories would be so craftedin their writing, the intersecting stories couldshow reciprocal footnotes to summarize theseconnections.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the gra-cious research staff of the Bibliothèque na-tionale de France in Paris who do theirwonderful work without individual credit.

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Figure 11: Family tree of Léonie Esther Meyer, née Cohen according to references cited and prepared by the author.

This paper was presented, in part, on April 16, 2016, atthe Cogan Ophthalmic History Society 29th AnnualMeeting, St. Louis, Missouri.