Jan Edward Aleksander Matuszyński (

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, 14 December 1808 – 20 April 1842,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

) was a Polish physician and close friend, in Warsaw and Paris, of Polish composer

Frédéric Chopin Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period who wrote primarily for Piano solo, solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown ...

Life

Jan Matuszyński's father, Jan Fryderyk Matuszyński (1768–1831), was a physician and surgeon and head of

's Lutheran Hospital.Sikorski (n.d.) Jan Matuszyński, a native of Warsaw, befriended Chopin whilst attending the Warsaw Lyceum, where he was taught by Chopin's father, Nicolas Chopin. Matuszyński came from a musical family; he himself played the

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

, and his brother Leopold (1820–93) became an opera

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

and director. From 1827 Jan studied medicine at the

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public university, public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well ...

. During the November 1830–31 Uprising he served as a medic with the Polish forces, in the 5th Mounted Rifles, and won the order of

Virtuti Militari The War Order of Virtuti Militari (Latin: ''"For Military Virtue"'', ) is Poland's highest military decoration for heroism and courage in the face of the enemy at war. It was established in 1792 by the last King of Poland Stanislaus II of Poland, ...

. Following the suppression of the Uprising he went into exile in Germany, eventually graduating in medicine at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellenc ...

. Emigrating to Paris in 1834, he for more than two years shared Chopin's apartment in the Chaussée d'Antin and gave him medical advice. He took a further medical degree in Paris, specializing in

physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

, and married a Frenchwoman, Caroline Boquet. In 1837 he published a treatise, ''De l'influence du nerf sympathique sur les fonctions des sens'' (On the Influence of the

Sympathetic Nervous System The sympathetic nervous system (SNS or SANS, sympathetic autonomic nervous system, to differentiate it from the somatic nervous system) is one of the three divisions of the autonomic nervous system, the others being the parasympathetic nervous sy ...

on the Functions of the Senses).Atwood (1999), p. 333. Matuszyński died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

. In his last days, Chopin and

George Sand Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. Being more renowned than either Victor Hugo or Honoré de Balz ...

cared for him at the rooms they shared in the rue Pigalle. Sand wrote that he "died in our arms after a slow and cruel agony, which caused Chopin as much suffering as if it had been his own. He hopinwas strong, courageous and devoted... but when it was over he was shattered." Matuszyński was buried in the Cemetery of Montmartre.

Notes

References

* Attwood, William G. (1999), ''The Parisian Worlds of Frédéric Chopin'', New Haven and London, Yale University Press, . * Sikorski, Andrzej (n.d.),
Jan Matuszyński
'' (in Polish), website of Fryderyk Chopin Institute, accessed 14 February 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Matuszynski, Jan 1808 births 1842 deaths Physicians from Warsaw 19th-century Polish scholars University of Warsaw alumni University of Tübingen alumni Polish expatriates in France Polish physiologists Frédéric Chopin 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis Burials at Montmartre Cemetery Recipients of the Virtuti Militari 19th-century composers Polish military doctors Tuberculosis deaths in France