National Academy of Medicine (France)

The National Academy of Medicine occupies a heavy, rust-colored stone building on Rue Bonaparte with deep-set windows and an arched entryway. Founded by royal decree in eighteen twenty, it serves as a permanent consultative body to the French government on public health matters. When a cholera outbreak hit Paris in the mid-nineteenth century, doctors gathered behind these walls to debate the contagion, often arguing bitterly over whether the disease traveled through the air or by direct contact with contaminated water.