planter. He found that he had only escaped one danger for another equally great. During the negro revolt he was made prisoner, and barely escaped with his life. He took refuge in the United States, where he supported himself by teaching the piano. In 1797 he returned to his native country, and at once commenced to write for the stage. He was successful from the first, and in a very few years he became famous as a writer of comedies, operas, and vaudevilles, which were produced in rapid succession at the Theatre des Varietes and the Vaudeville. During the same period he acquired a reputation of a still higher kind as a writer of convivial and satirical songs, which, though different in character, can only worthily be compared with those of Be ranger. His singing of his own songs made his society eagerly sought for in many of the salons of Paris. In 1815 Desaugiers succeeded Barre" as manager of the Vaudeville, and he was prosperous for some years, though not in all respects well -fitted for the position. In 1820, however, the opposition of the Gymnase proved too strong for him, and he resigned. Five years later he allowed himself to be persuaded to resume the position, but he had scarcely done so when he fell into bad health. He died in Paris of the result of an operation for stone on the 9th August 1827. An edition of Desaugier s Chansons et poesies divcrscs appeared in three volumes in 1827. It contains a notice of his life by Brazier. See also Saiiit Beuve s Portraits Contemporains.
DESAULT, PIERRE JOSEPH (1744-95), a distinguished
French anatomist and surgeon, was born at Magny-Vernais,
a village of Franche-Compte, in 1744. He was descended
of humble parents, and received the early part of his
education in a school of the Jesuits, being destined for the
church. His own inclination, however, tended to the
study of medicine; and, after learning something from the
barber-surgeon of his native village, he was at length
settled as an apprentice in the military hospital of Belfort.
Here he acquired some knowledge of anatomy and military
surgery ; and, having previously made considerable progress
in mathematical studies, he applied this knowledge, after
the example of Borelli and others, to the investigation of
physiological subjects. He early translated Borelli s De
Motu Animalium, and added notes and illustrations, which,
although founded on wrong principles, gave undeniable
proofs of zeal and industry.
He went to Paris when about twenty years of age, and
opened a school of anatomy in the winter of 1766, which
was soon attended by about 300 pupils, a great proportion
of whom were older than himself. His success excited the
jealousy of the established teachers and professors, who,
although he was patronized and protected by some surgeons
of great eminence, would have obliged him to renounce
public teaching, had he not resorted to the expedient of
adopting the name of another as a sanction to his proceed
ings. In 1776 he was admitted a member of the corpora
tion of surgeons ; and so limited were his finances at this
time, that he was allowed to pay his fees at his own con
venience. He successively held the positions of honour in
the corporation and academy of surgery; and in 1782 he
was appointed surgeon-major to the hospital Dela CJiarite.
Desault was now regarded as one of the first surgeons of
Paris. He succeeded to the next vacancy at the Hotel
Dieu ; and, after the death of Moreau, almost the whole
surgical department of that hospital was intrusted to him.
He instituted a clinical school of surgery there on a liberal
and extensive plan, which attracted a great concourse of
students, not only from every part of France, but also
from other countries. He frequently had an audience
of about 600 ; and most of the surgeons of the French
army derived their knowledge from his lectures. He
introduced many improvements into thtt practice of
surgery, as well as in the construction of various surgical
instruments.
In 1791 he published a work entitled Journal de
Chirurgerie, edited by his pupils, which was a record of
the most interesting cases that had occurred in his clinical
school, with the remarks which he had made upon them in
the course of his lectures. But in the midst of his valuable
labours he became obnoxious to some of the Revolutionists,
and he was, on some frivolous charge, denounced to the
popular sections. After being twice examined, he was
seized on the 28th May 1793, while delivering a lecture,
carried away from his theatre, and committed to the prison
of the Luxembourg. In three days, however, he was
liberated, and permitted to resume his functions. When
the school of health was established, he was appointed
clinical professor for external maladies ; and it was through
his means that the Eveche^ was converted into an hospital
for surgical operations. He died on the 1st June 1795 of
an ataxic fever, which he had caught two days previously
while attending the dauphin in the Temple. An opinion
was prevalent among the populace that he was poisoned
because he had refused to do anything against the
dauphin s life. The autopsy which was held went to dis
prove the story, but it shows the opinion the public enter
tained of Desault s integrity. A pension was settled on
his widow by the republic. The only work of which he is
the sole author is entitled Traite des Maladies Chirurgicales t
et des Operations qui leur conviennent, in 2 vols. 8vo.
See Petit s loge de Desault (Lyons, 1795).
DESCARTES, RENE, was born at La Haye, in Touraine,
on the 31st of March 1596, and died at Stockholm on the
llth of February 1650. The small town of La Haye lies
on the right bank of the Creuse, about midway between
Tours and Poitiers. The house is still shown where he
was born, and a métairie about three miles off still retains
the name of Les Cartes. His family on both sides was of
Poitevin descent, and had its head-quarters in the neigh
bouring town of Chatellerault, where his grandfather had
been a physician. Joachim Descartes, his father, having
purchased a commission as counsellor in the Parlement of
Rennes, introduced the family into that demi-noblesse of
the robe, which, in stately isolation between the bourgeoisie
and the high nobility, maintained a lofty rank in the
hierarchy of France. For the one half of each year
required for residence the elder Descartes removed with his
wife, Jeanne Brochard, to Rennes. Three children, all of
whom first saw the light at La Haye, sprung from the
union a son who afterwards succeeded to his father in the
Parlement, a daughter who married a M. du Crevis, and a
second son Rene. His mother, who had been ailing
beforehand, never recovered from her third confinement ;
and the motherless infant was entrusted to a nurse, whose
care Descartes in after years remembered by a small
pension.
Descartes, who in the family circle was known as Du Perron, from a small estate destined for his inheritance, soon showed, say the chroniclers, an inquisitive mind, which made his father style him his philosopher. He was sent off at the age of eight to the school of La Fleche, which Henry IV. had lately founded and endowed for the Jesuits, and there he continued from 1604 to 1612. Of the educa tion there given, of the equality maintained among the pupils, and of their free intercourse, Descartes at a later period spoke in terms of high praise.[1] He himself enjoyed exceptional privileges; his feeble health excused him from the morning duties, and thus early he acquired the habit of matutinal reflection in bed, which clung to him through-
- ↑ Œuvres (ed. Cousin), viii. 546.
