Un choix personnel transformé en mission gouvernementale : l’activité du Dr Carol Davila (1828–1884) en Roumanie

Carol Davila’s pioneering work in the health field has often been read by contemporaries and posterity through a political point of view. One of his fundamental goals was the establishment of medical education and the education of Romanian specialists. This “nationalization” of Romanian medicine was concretely supported by France. Opponents of French influence in the Principality accused Davila of occult interests, but in Romania his work was perceived as a gesture of patriotism. Although his presence in Bucharest does not appear to have been the result of direct negotiations between the Romanian and French governments, from the outset he was seen by his contemporaries as a true agent of the latter, an opinion he himself shared.