MARTINET DE FONBLANCHE, JEAN (sometimes and quite wrongly called Tourblanche), surgeon of the Hôtel-Dieu of Ville-Marie, medico-legal expert in that town; b. 1645, son of Paul Martinet, a merchant from Moustier Saint-Jean in the diocese of Langres, and of Catherine Ducas; d. 7 Nov. 1701.

Martinet became a surgeon of the Hôtel-Dieu of Ville-Marie on 20 Aug. 1681, when he signed with that institution the same contract as did Antoine Forestier. Not content with looking after the patients of the Hôtel-Dieu, he frequently acted as a medico-legal expert. His signature is attached to numerous reports, the most curious being no doubt the one concerning the inquest in the Talus case. A certain Julien Talus, dit Vendamont, had returned to his home at Lachine on the night of 9–10 July 1684 and had found his wife in bed with a person named Antoine Roy dit Desjardins. The husband killed the lover and gave himself up. It was Jean Martinet who took charge of the post-mortem examination. The trial was held, and on 14 October following Vendamont was condemned to death, but lodged an appeal.

At an early date Martinet had begun taking on apprentices in surgery at Montreal: Paul Prud’homme was enrolled on 15 Jan. 1674, and François Tardy on 16 December of that year; there is a record of other apprentices in 1686 and 1691.

Medicine at that time made extensive use of medicinal herbs. Thus it is interesting to note that in the contract by which he agreed to sell a piece of land containing some three acres to the Recollets on 17 April 1681, Martinet stipulated that the sale included the trees and plants growing in the field, but not the medicinal herbs.

On 14 July 1670, at Montreal, he had married Marguerite Prud’homme, then 14 years old, the daughter of Louis Prud’homme*, a brewer and captain of the militia, and of Roberte Gadoys. Two children were born of this union.

Charles-Marie Boissonnault