 He went to school in Angers where he was an outstanding student winning many prizes.He graduated from the School of Medicine in Paris becoming a doctor in 1821, by which time he had fathered two children with his mistress, the widow of a judge.He was under financial pressure, which became further exacerbated by a friend's debt of 600 francs, for which he had vouched in 1818 and which became due in 1820.