Jaucourt, Louis De

, a man of a noble family, with the title of chevalier, who preferred study and literary labour, in which he was indefatigable, to the advantages of birth, which in his time were very highly estimated, was born in 1704. His disinterestedness and his virtues were conspicuous, and his knowledge extended to medicine, antiquities, manners, morals, and general literature; in all which branches he has furnished articles that are reckoned to do honour to the French Encyclopedic. The abbe Barruel says, that D' Alembert and Diderot artfully engaged a few such men of unblemished character to engage in that undertaking; and Jaucourt’s name alone, they knew, would be thought a sufficient guarantee against the bad principles of the work. Jaucourt likewise conducted the “Bibliotheque Raisounee,” a journal greatly esteemed, from its origin to the year 1740. In conjunction with the professors Gaubius, Musschenbroek, and Dr. Massuet, he published the “-Musaeuin Sebaeanum,” in 1734, a book greatly esteemed, and of high price. He had also composed a “Lexicon Medicum universale,” but his manuscript, which was just about to be printed in Holland, in 6 vols. | folio, was lost with the vessel in which it was sent to that country. Some other works by him are also extant, on subjects of medicine and natural philosophy. He was a member of the royal society of London, elected in 1756,, and of the academies of Berlin and Stockholm; and having been a pupil of the illustrious Boerhaave, was, by his interest, strongly invited into the service of the stadtholder, on very advantageous terms. But promises had no effect upon a man who was, as he paints himself, “a man without necessities, and without desires, without ambition, withotit intrigues; bold enough to offer his compliments to the great, but sufficiently prudent not to force his company upon them; and one who sought a studious obscurity, for the sake of preserving his tranquillity.” He died in February 1780. ¹