Revisiting history: the royal physician who removed the bullet from Naser al-Din Shah's heart and kept it in his pocket

Joseph Desiré Toulouzan was born on an island that few Iranian cities may have heard of. Diego Garcia lies in the Indian Ocean and at that time was dependent on Mauritius. He was registered in Port Louis three years later. He spent his childhood there and sat beside Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard, a boy who later became a notable name in the history of physiology.

According to Ambassador Arjan, the family returned to Marseille and Toulouse studied at the medical school of the same city. From there, he went to Paris and defended his doctoral thesis, according to Theodorides, in 1843.

In 1841, he entered the army hospital and in 1852, he became the first visiting professor of medicine at the Waldogras Military Hospital. He was present in the Crimean War (1854-1855) and took numerous notes from the soldiers suffering from cholera and typhus. Sharaf newspaper later mentioned his presence in the Algerian war. Behzadi writes that from 1852 to 1856, he was an editor or writer in the Medical Gazette of Paris and became known for his writings about infectious diseases, especially plague and cholera.

Farrukh Khan Aminul-Molk Ghafari, the Iranian ambassador at the court of Napoleon III, asked France for effective medicine for the king. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs chose Toulousan and he took the place of the Austrian Edward Pollack. The date of his arrival is not uniformly reported. Theodorides and Behzadi write from 1858 and 1859, and Iranica and the biography recorded in Mauritius from 1864 and 1865. Whatever it was, he stayed in Tehran.

In the issue of 35 Muharram 1303 A.H., Sharaf newspaper called him "Chief of Staff of Askariyeh" and mentioned about the rank of commander of the Legion of Honor and his membership in scientific societies in Paris and London. Behzadi writes that he was the only foreign doctor in the court who received the title of Hakimbashi. According to Etimad al-Sultaneh, his salary was six thousand tomans a year. Iranika also calls the presence of the French doctor next to the king as one of the pillars of French policy in Iran.

Toluzan had two jobs at the same time: medicine for the king and medical education. He was in charge of the medical department at Dar al-Funun. The first medical graduate of Dar al-Funun, Mirza Abul Hasan Tafarshi, studied under him, followed by Nafisi Nazem al-Atba, Mo'taman al-Atba, Nizam al-Hakma, Taqfi A'lam al-Dawlah, and Adham Luqman al-Mamalek. Mirza Abdul Hossein Khan, the philosopher of al-Dawlah Zenozi, learned new medicine from him and opened a practice in Tabriz. Mirza Mahmoud Khan Hakim al-Molk also studied medicine with him and later became a court minister.

His institutional work was the Health Protection Assembly. By the order of Naser al-Din Shah, probably at his suggestion, the Health Council was built. Its first meeting was held on the 9th of Dhul-Qaida 1284 (March 4, 1868) with the presence of three well-educated scholars of Dar al-Funun. In August 1869, he also wrote a report on the health situation in Iran, which reviewed the history of cholera attacks, recommended quarantine and, unlike his predecessors, emphasized the reform of urban health.

His field research has a long list: "A Plague Epidemic in Mesopotamia in 1867", "History of Plague of Khiarki in Mesopotamia" (1874) and investigation of natural foci of plague in villages of Kurdistan between 1870 and 1882. He also wrote in detail about Asian relapsing fever and his name remains on Ornithodoros tholozani, the main vector of tick-borne relapsing fever in Iran. He also wrote Farsi. "Zubda al-Hikma Naseri" about sin (1280 AH) and "Bada'i al-Hikma" about hearing the sound of the heart and lungs (1287 AH) are among the works of Avind. In addition to the court, he also treated ordinary patients.

French scientific authorities also appreciated it. In 1867, he became a member of the schools of the Academy of Medicine and in 1874, he became a member of the schools of the Academy of Sciences. In 1880, he retired from the army and in 1884, he was made commander of the Donor Legion.

Behzadi writes that Toluzan accompanied Farang Naser al-Din Shah in all three trips in 1290, 1295 and 1306 AD. There is a photo from the third trip that shows Azizul Sultan, Dr. Tuluzan, Majdal Doulah and Mr. Abdullah Khajeh behind the Shah, and the Shah's handwriting can be seen below it. Another photo shows him next to the Shah in Shahristan. On the same third trip, according to Iranica, he fell ill in Paris and could not return with the king.

There was a discussion about the successor. Faurier, who later wrote of Three Years at the Court of Iran, was the king's physician from August 1889 to October 1892. The British ambassador also had his own candidate, Dixon, and Amin al-Sultan could not accept him as the king. When Fourier's relationship with the court went cold, the king said he would encourage Toulousan to retire, but Toulousan stayed.

About 1313 AH (1896) and Mirza Reza's bullet, Behzadi writes that Toluzan was present at the Shah's bedside and took the bullet out from under the heart and put it in his pocket as a souvenir. According to him, the blow of the pistol was weak and if the king's heart was smaller or if he wore an undershirt, he would have died. The Shah's bloody handkerchief, which the attending physicians dipped in the wound, is today in the Golestan Palace, and Dr. Mohammad Sheikh's handwriting can be seen on it. Other narrations call Dr. Sheikh as the center of actions of the same day and these two narrations do not read together.

Toluzan was also involved in non-medical affairs. Sick Marcel Diolafoa arrived in Tehran and Toluzan treated him. According to Iranika, the Iranian government did not allow drilling at first, and his mediation changed the situation. Jean de Lafayette wrote about him that, unlike other Europeans, he did not abandon his work in the East, he studied local diseases and was one of the king's concubines and was present in consultations. The excavation of Susa continued from 1884 to 1886, and the Iranian Hall of the Louvre was opened on October 20, 1886. In 1895, following de Balva, the monopoly of Iran's archeological excavations went to France, and ten thousand tomans were offered to the Shah. In 1884, he also gifted pottery, including Naser al-Din Shah's hookah jar, to Lyon Museum.

In the court, he used to get privileges such as digging for antiques. Etimad al-Saltaneh wrote in his memoirs that the bank and tobacco concessions went to foreigners due to Toulouse's actions, and he closed the Ahvaz dam concession with the French company. In another note, he is called the "broker and mediator" of Reuter's affair. There is also a contrary story: a letter from Toulouse to the Shah in which he writes that the courtiers are giving false reports and that the British embassy considers the privilege valid. These two narratives still cannot be put together and made one.

His friendship with Etimad al-Sultaneh was also tied to this space. Behzadi writes that Etimad al-Sultaneh was first nicknamed for him, but after he believed the negligence of the people of Toulouse to his daughter's illness and her death, he became an enemy of the doctor.

Toulousan's daughter married Churchill, the British consul in Rasht. Behzadi writes that his adopted daughter was also the wife of Monsieur Lomer, a musician at Dar al-Funun school. Two family ties connected him to the British network in northern Iran on the one hand and to the Royal School of Tehran on the other hand.

Toluzan died in Tehran on July 30, 1897 (1314 AD), in the first year of Muzaffar al-Din Shah's reign, and was buried in the Catholic cemetery in Dolab. A tradition says that he was poisoned by order of the new king, but there is no document for that and the secret of his death was never revealed. It seems that he had two boxes full of notes, but it is not known what happened to him. Undoubtedly, he also gave reports about the situation in the court to the French embassy. After his death, the rivalry between the French court physician (Schneider) and the English physician (Lindley) continued, and in 1904 Schneider re-established the Health Council.

In the National Library of Iran, his 1857 medical treatise with a green cover and the words "dedicated to the king" is kept. This version was transferred from the Royal Library on December 6, 1317, and there is a small piece of paper on it that is legible only by "Mr. Toulousan" in his French script. Teodorides also heard his name for the first time in the fall of 1959 in Tehran, from Marcel Balthazar at the Pasteur Institute, and worked on him. His date is still not uniform in the sources and the researcher who wants to solve these differences should visit the documents of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Valdegras Archives.