[The migrant and the Hôpital du Massif Central at the Hôpital Saint-Louis-des-Français in Madrid, 1617-1935].

This article is meant to bring out the interest offered by hospital records for the study of a migratory movement. The example chosen is a medium-distance migration, concerning people leaving the Massif central for Spain. The subject of our observation is the "Hôpital de Saint Louis des Français" in Madrid. It was a small establishment, but one whose exiguity is offset--for the observer--by its longevity (1617-1935). This means thousands of entries and, for the historian, a stock-in-trade which, although deficient at times, sheds a new light on a migratory movement as long-lived as the hospital itself. Over three centuries, we can trace enduring regional and occupational trends as well as departures from those trends, whose statistics can be made. Thus, the standard Auvergnat who never fails to give his patronage to the Hôpital de Saint Louis des Français--more than a third of its inmates until the 19th century--that itinerant provider of small services, can be seen to settle gradually in Madrid, confining himself to the bakery trade. If that occupational evolution can be easily discerned, a more subtle analysis makes it possible to detect the departures from the trends in the parishes from which they emigrated, and to make comparisons with other French migrants. Moreover, better than any other document, the Infirmary Register throws light on the often hidden side of emigration: disease, poverty and failure.