Deidier, Anthony

, a voluminous writer on almost every branch of medicine, was the son of a surgeon of Montpellier. In 1691 he was made M. D. and in 1697, professor of chemistry. He was also honoured with the ribbon of the order of St. Michael, and was admitted one of the foreign members of the royal society of London. In 1732, being appointed physician to the galleys, he quitted Montpellier, and went to Marseilles, where he died on the 3d of April, 1746. Of his works, the following have been most noticed: “Experiences sur la Bile, et les cadavres des pestiferes, faites par M. D.; accompagnees des Lettres, &c.” Zurich, 1772. He was at Marseilles while the plague raged there, and attributed the disease to a prevailing acid. He injected bile taken from persons who had died of the plague, into the veins of some dogs, which were almost immediately killed by the venom; an experiment from which no useful result could be expected to follow. He tried inunctions with mercury in the disease; from which, he says, no benefit nor mischief was found to accrue. “Chymie raisonnee, ou Ton tache de decouvrir la nature et la maniere d'agir des remedes chymiques les plus en usage en medicine et en chirurgie,” Lyon, 1715, 12mo. These experiments were also fruitless; they shew, however, an active and inquisitive turn of mind, which, properly directed, might have been productive of some profits. He published three volumes of consultations and observations, which may be read with advantage, the diseases being generally correctly described, and the method of treating them such as is now commonly practised. For the titles and accounts of the remainder of his works, see Haller’s Bib. Med. ²