Barthes De Marmorions, Paul Joseph

, a French physician and medical writer, was born Dec. 1734, at Montpellier, and discovered in his earliest years a noble ardour for study, particularly of the languages, both ancient and modern, which laid the foundation for that extensive and various knowledge for which he was afterwards distinguished. Having at length given the preference to medicine as a profession, he applied himself to that art under the ablest masters; and such was his proficiency, that he obtained his doctor’s degree in 1753, when only nineteen years of age. In 1756 he was crowned by the academy of inscriptions and belles lettres at Paris, having been before, in 1754, appointed physician to the military hospital in | Normandy. During this service he made many observations and inquiries, which were published in the Memoirs of the academy of sciences. In 1757 he was sent to the army in Westphalia, with the rank of consulting physician, and in 1761 he was appointed professor of medicine at Moutpellier, where he became as celebrated as Boerhaave at Ley den, Stahl at Hall, or Cullen at Edinburgh, giving such a new direction to the medical studies as to create an important epoch in the history of that school. Here he filled the professor’s chair for twenty years, with the highest reputation. In 1775, he was named joint chancellor of the faculty of Montpellier, and in 1786 obtained the full title of chancellor. About six years before, he had been appointed member of the court of accounts and finance, and some time before that, physician to the duke of Orleans. About the time that he visited Paris, and formed an intimacy with the leading men in the learned world, particularly d’Alembert and Malesherbes, he became, a member of the academy of sciences of Paris, Berlin, Gottingen, and Stockholm. At length he was chosen corresponding member of the national institute of France, and professor, honorary and actual, of the new school of medicine at Montpellier, physician to the French government, and consulting physician to the emperor. He died at Paris, Oct. 15, 1806, aged seventy-two. His works, according to the Dict. Historique, are various medical theses and dissertations, memoirs published by various academies, particularly that of Paris, in the years 1799 and 1801; and, 1. “La nouvelle mecanique de l’homme et des animaux,” 1802. 2. “L’Histoire des maladies goutteuses,” Paris, 1802. 3. “Discours sur le genie d’Hippocrate,” pronounced in the school of Montpellier. 4. “Traite sur le Beau,” a posthumous work. In Fourcroy’s catalogue we find another publication attributed to him, under the title of “Elnathan, ou les ages de Phomme, trad, du Chaldeen,” 1802, 3 vols. 8vo. The compiler of this catalogue calls him Barthes-Marmorieres. ¹