Lieberkuhn, John-Nathaniel

, a Prusian anatomist, was bnrn at Berlin in 1711. His inclinations led him early to cultivate philosophy and anatomy: but it was not until he was about his twenty-fifth year that he was permitted entirely to indulge them. His acquisitions before that period had, indeed, been considerable; and after it he pursued his studies at Hall, Jena, Leyden, Paris, and London. In 1740, he was elected a member of the royal | society of London, and of other learned societies on the continent. He returned to Berlin in that year, by the express command of the king of Prussia, and became celebrated for his anatomical researches, and a fine museum of anatomical preparations which he accumulated. He died at Berlin of a peripneumony, in 1756. The only works he left were reprinted at London, in 1782, by John Sheldon, esq. lecturer on anatomy, 4to, under the title of “Dissertationes quatuor.” The first is the author’s thesis on the structure of the valve of the colon, and the use of the processus vermicularis; the second, on the structure and action of the villi of the small intestines of the human body: the third, on the proper methods of discovering the structure of the viscera: the fourth, on the anatomical microscope. It is said that his eye-sight had almost the power of a microscope, and that he could perceive with the naked eye objects to which other men were obliged to apply microscopes and magnifiers. This account may perhaps have been a little exaggerated, but we cannot doubt that a description of his anatomical microscope will affect every humane mind with horror. To it belongs an apparatus for the purpose of crucifying living animals, and fixing them and their bowels in such a manner, with pointed hooks, as that they cannot move, in the midst of their protracted tortures, so as to disturb the operator, after he has opened their bellies, and dragged out their intestines, for his deliberate inspection. We have no words to express our detestation of such cruelty, nor, we trust, are any necessary. 1

LflEUTAUD (Joseph), a celebrated physician and anatomist, was born at Aix, in Provence, June 21, 1703. His family, long established at Aix, had produced many distinguished officers, ecclesiastics, lawyers, &c. He was at first intended by his parents for the church; but the reputation of his maternal uncle Garidel, the professor of medicine at Aix, gave him a bias to the study of medicine, and particularly botany, in which his researches and skill soon occasioned him to be promoted to the chairs of botany and anatomy at Aix, which his uncle had long filled. His lectures on anatomy were much attended, and by an audience comprising many persons not engaged in

| the study of medicine, and among others, the marquis d’Argens, the intimate friend of the king. M. Lieutaud published, in 1742, a syllabus of anatomy for the use of his pupils, entitled “Essais auatomiques, contenant l’Histoire exacte de toutes les parties qui composent le corps humaine;” it was several times reprinted, with improvements, and in 1777 was edited by M. Portal, in 2 volumes. He communicated also several papers on morbid anatomy, and on physiology, to the academy of sciences, of which he was elected a corresponding member. In 1749, however, he quitted his post at Aix, and went to Versailles, at the instance of the celebrated Senac, who then held the highest appointment at court, and who obtained for Lieutaud the appointment of physician to the royal infirmary. This act of friendship is said to have originated from the private communication of some errors, which Lieutaud had detected in a work of M. Senac, and which he did not deem it proper to publish. At Versailles he continued his anatomical investigations with unabated zeal, and was soon after his arrival elected assistant anatomist to the royal academy, to which he continued to present many valuable memoirs. He also printed a volume entitled “Elementa Physiologice,” &c. Paris, 1749, which had been composed for the use of his class at Aix. In 1755, he was nominated physician to the royal family; and twenty years afterwards, he obtained the place of first physician to the king, Louis XVI. In 1759 he published a system of the practice of medicine, under the title of *' Precis de la Medicine pratique,“which underwent several editions, with great augmentations, the best of which is that of Paris, 1770, in 2 vols. 4to. In 1766, he published a” Precis de la Matiere medicale,“in 8vo, afterwards reprinted in 2 vols. But his most important work, which still ranks high in the estimation of physicians, is that which treats of the seats and causes of diseases, ascertained by his innumerable dissections. It was entitled” Historia Anatomico-medica, sistens numerosissima cadaverum humanorum extispicia," Paris, 1767, in 2 vols. 4to. M. Lieutaud died September 6, 1780, after an illness of five days. ¹