Goussier, John James

, a learned French physician, professor of mathematics, and a member of several learned societies, was born at Paris March 7, 1722. His first public services in the literary world were the arrangement and preparation for the press of M. la Condamiue’s memoir on the measure of the first three degrees of the meridian in the Southern hemisphere. In the Encyclopaedia he was | chosen for the department of the mechanic arts, and his numerous articles are remarkable for accuracy and perspicuity. He had a great turn for mechanics, and invented several machines still employed in agriculture and chemistry, c. in France. In connexion with the unfortunate baron de Marivetz, he published a learned and elaborate work entitled “Physique du monde,” five volumes of which he published during the life of his colleague, and afterwards three others. The whole was to have been comprized in 14 vols. 4to, but of these eight only have appeared. In 1779 he published “Prospectus d'un traite de geometric physique particuliere du royaume de France,” 4to. He died at Paris in 1800. ¹