[Philippe Pinel and secret remedies].

At the beginning of the 19th century, every medical discovery had to be examined by the School of Medicine in Paris according to the regulation of the 'secret medicines'. The members of the commission made the analysis of the formula or the suggested method and reported their conclusion before an assembly of professors. 1070 reports were proposed between 1795 and 1821 but about forty Pinel's reports remain unknown. Some of them deal with many subjects: epilepsy, dropsy, ringworm...in which Pinel shows his important knowledge beyond his usual medical sphere, his critical mind especially in the methodology of clinical tests.