, known also by the name of La Riviere, who flourished in the latter
, known also by the name of La Riviere, who flourished in the latter part of the sixteenth century, was a
native of Falaise in Normandy, and physician in ordinary
to Henry IV. He acquired considerable reputation for
learning, but, as he practised on the principles of Paracelsus, he was involved in disputes with his brethren, and
frequently obliged to vindicate his method. Besides medicine, he was well versed in philosophy and the belles lettres,
and was an excellent naturalist. He died at Paris, Nov. 5,
1605. When feeling the approaches of death, he sent
for all his servants, and distributed his money and property among them, on condition that they immediately left the house, which was so punctually complied
with, that when the physicians came on their next visit,
they found the doors open, and their patient by himself,
with no property left hut the bed he lay upon. When the
physicians remarked this circumstance to him, he answered that he must now go likewise, “as his baggage was sent
off before him, 17 and immediately expired. Pierre de
l'Etoile, however,^ in his journal of Henry IV. represents
him as a true penitent, and compares him to the thief on
the cross. His works are
” Demosterion, sive CCC
Aphorismi, continentes summam doctrinae Paruecelsse,“Paris, 1573, 8vo.
” Resp*onsio ad questiones propositas a
medici* Parisiensibus,“Paris, 1579, 8vo.
” Traite-de la
Peste,“1580.
” Traite* de Tantiquite et singularite de la
grande Bretagne Armorique," Rennes, 1587, 4to.