Sauvages, Francis Boissier De

, the inventor of modern nosology, was born at Alais, in Lower Languedoc, May 12, 1706. He appears to have owed little to his first tutors, but his own talents enabled him to make a rapid progress in literature and philosophy. With a view to study physic, he went to Montpellier in 1722, and received the degree of doctor in 1726. The thesis which he | clefended on this occasion was on a singular subject, “Si l’amour peut etre gueri par les remedes tire’s des plantes?” To determine whether love can be cured by herbs seems rather a trial of skill, than a serious discussion. It procured him, however, the name of the love-doctor, and it is said that he wrote some poems on the same subject. In 1730, he went to Paris with a view to farther improvement in his profession, and afterwards returned to Montpellier, where he obtained a professorship in 1734. His reputation for ingenuity of speculation and extensive reading for some time retarded his practice, but these speculations were not allowed much weight in the treatment of his patients. In 1740, he was appointed demonstrator of the plants in the botanic garden, and in 1752 he was made professor of botany. He married in 1748, and had two sons and four daughters, who^ survived him. A serious disease, which continued nearly t’wo years, proved fatal in the midst of his useful and honourable career, in the month of February, 1767, in the sixty- first year of his age.

Sauvages was much loved by his pupils, to whom he communicated freely all that he knew, and received with equal readiness whatever information any one was enabled to give him. He was an able mathematician, an. accurate observer of phenomena, and ingenious in devising experiments; but had too much bias to systems, so that he did not always consult facts uninfluenced by prepossession. He was a member of the most learned societies of Europe, viz. of the Royal Society of London, of those of Berlin, Upsal, Stockholm, and Montpellier, of the Academy “Naturae Curiosorum,” of the Physico-Botanical Academy of Florence, and of the Institute of Bologna. He obtained the prizes given by many public bodies to the best essays oil given subjects; and a collection of these prize-essays was published at Lyons in 1770, in two volumes, with the title of.“Chef d'Œuvres de M. de Sauvages.”

His works were very numerous on various medical subjects, and he published a valuable botanical work, “Methodus foliorum, seu Plantag Florae Monspeliensisjuxta foliorum ordinem,” containing about 500 plants, omitted in Magnol’s “Botanicon Monspeliense;” but that on which his fame most depends was his system of nosology. This was preceded by a small work, entitled “Nouvelles classes des Maladies,” &c. 1732, 12rno; and after considering the subject for thirty years, he produced his complete system, | “Nosologica methodica, sistens’morborum classes, genera, et species,” &c. 1763, 5 vols. 8vo, and after his death, 1768, 2 vols. 4to. Sin- e the appearance of this work, the subject has been ably cultivated by Linnæus, by Vogel, by Sagar, and lastly, by Dr. Cullen, to whose arrangement many give the preference. ¹