The paper discusses the foundation of hospitals in Paris in the 17th and 18th centuries. Unknown in Antiquity, the hospital institution was essentially a creation of Christian charity. Although the first hospitals in Paris date from the beginning of the Middle Ages, the 17th century was particularly productive not only in terms of the foundation of new hospitals but also in terms of the reconstruction of older hospitals. As acts of charity, these hospitals owed little to official medicine. The hospitals served the dual role of health care institution and a means to combat poverty and homelessness. From 1657 on, begging was outlawed. Beggars were interned in the general hospital system in the interests of hygiene and philanthropy. In the first half of the century, administrators sought to bring some order to the system by separating the various categories of internees. This task was to be completed by physicians and administrators in the second half of the 18th century using the categories of clinical medicine. L'hopital, ou etablissement de soins, n'existait pas dans l'Antiquite. C'est la charite chretienne qui est a l'origine de cette institution. A l'epoque des catacombes, deja, des refuges avaient ete organises pour accueillir et soigner les pauvres malades ou infirmes. En 330, a Byzance, l'empereur Constantin a l'idee d'instituionnaliser ces maisons et fonde le premier hospice-hopital pour recevoir et soigner les indigents malades.