, a skilful apothecary, born at Usez,
in Upper Languedoc, in 1618, followed ins profession at
Orange, from whence he went and settled at Paris. Having
obtained a considerable share of reputation by his treatise
on the virtues and properties of treacle, he was chosen
to deliver a course of chemistry at the royal garden of
plants at Paris, in which he acquitted himself with general
applause during nine years. His “Pharmacopeia,
” 1673,
of which an improved edition by Monnier was published in
1753, 2 vols. 4to, was the fruit of his lectures and his studies,
and has been translated into all the languages of Europe,
and even into the Chinese, for the accommodation of the
emperor. The edicts against the Calvinists obliged him
to quit his country in 1680. He went over to England,
from thence to Holland, and afterwards into Spain with the
ambassador, who brought him to the assistance of his master
Charles II. Languishing in sickness from his birth. Every
good Spaniard was at that time convinced that the vipers
for twelve leagues round Toledo were innoxious, ever since
they were deprived of their venom by the fiat of a famous
archbishop. The French doctor endeavoured to combat
this error, and the physicians of the court, envious of the
merit of C haras, failed not to take umbrage at this impiety; they complained of him to the inquisition, from
whence he was not dismissed till he had abjured the protestant faith. Charas was then seventy -two years old. He
returned to Paris, and was admitted a member of the royal
academy, and there he continued until his death, Jan. 17,
1698.