Riviere, La'Zarus

, an eminent French physicist, was born at Montpellier in 1589. He studied in the university of his native place, but having failed in his examinations for his degree, he was impelled to redouble his exertiotis, and in 16 11 was admitted to the degree of doctor with great credit. In 1622 he was appointed to the professorship of medicine in the university, an office which he continued to fill with great honour until his death in 1655. Riverius published “The Institutes of Medicine,” in five books, in Latin, which went through many editions; but the work which has gained him most reputation, is a course of medicine, entitled “Praxis Medica,” of which editions were long multiplied in France, Holland, and England. It treats of most of the diseases to which the body is subject, in seventeen books, in a clear style; but in many places he appears to have borrowed copiously from Sennertus. He published also a work entitled “Observationes Medic* et Curationes insignes,” which has been frequently reprinted, and is not now without its value. These works have been collected and published together, under the title of “Opera Medica Universa,” Geneva, | 1737, and Leyden, 1758, fol. Eloy observes, that a friar, Bernardin Christin, who had been a pupil of Riverius, compiled some secrets of chemistry, which he published with the name of Riverius; and although it has been clearly proved that he was not the author of these papers, yet they have been frequently printed in the collections of his works, and separately, under the title of “Arcana Riverii.” ¹