Desault, Peter

, a French physician, was born at Arsac, in Chalosse, in 1675, and died at Bourdeaux, in 1737, where he acquired great reputation as a practitioner, and was author of several useful practical works, which are still sought for, on the gout, and on the venereal disease, which latter he professed to cure without salivation. In. his “Dissertation sur la Pierre des reins et de la vessie,” 1736, 3 vols. 12mo, he is averse to cutting for the stone in the bladder; which he says may be dissolved by giving the patients the water of Bareges to drink, and by injecting it into their bladders, and although it is now known the waters do not dissolve the stone, they are still used for their power in appeasing pain. In the second volume the author treats of the management of persons bitten by rabid animals, and opposes, with propriety, opinions once very prevalent, that persons in hydrophobia attempt biting their attendants, and that they make a noise resembling the barking of a dog, which certainly never occur. He left behind him a manuscript on the epilepsy. The publication entitled “Nouvelles dccouvertes en medicine,” 1727, has been attributed to him without sufficient authority. Cailluu, a physician of Bourdeaux, published in 1800 a very interesting account of the life and writings of Desault, which we have not yet seen. ²