FLOURENS, PIERRE (1794-1867), French physiologist, was born at Maureilhan, near Beziers, on April 15, 1794. After taking his M.D. at Montpellier, Flourens began physiological research in Paris and in 1822 published his Recherches experi mentales sur les proprietes et les fonctions du systeme nerveux dans les animaux vertebras, in which he, from experimental evi dence, sought to assign their special functions to the cerebrum, corpora quadrigemina and cerebellum. He was chosen by Cuvier in 1828 to deliver for him a course of lectures at the College de France. In 1832 a professorship of comparative anatomy was created for him at the museum of the Jardin. In 1833 Flourens, in accordance with the dying request of Cuvier, was appointed a per petual secretary of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1838 was re turned as a deputy for the arrondissement of Beziers. In 1840 he was elected, in preference to Victor Hugo, to succeed J. F. Michaud at the French Academy; and in 1846 he was created a peer of France. In 1847 Flourens directed the attention of the Academy of Sciences to the anaesthetic effect of chloroform on animals. At the revolution of 1848 he withdrew completely from political life, and in 1855 he accepted the professorship of natural history at the College de France. He died at Montgeron, near Paris, on Dec. 6, 1867.
Besides numerous shorter scientific memoirs, Flourens published Experiences sur le systeme nerveux (1825) ; Cours sur la generation, l'ovologie, et l'embryologie (1836) : Analyse raisonnee des travaux de G. Cuvier (1841) ; Buffon, histoire de ses travaux et de ses idees (1844) ; Fontenelle, on de la philosophic moderne relativement aux sciences physiques (5847) ; Oeuvres completes de Buffon (1853) ; De la longevite humaine (5854), Histoire de la decouverte de la circulation du sang (1854) ; Cours de physiologic coinparee (1856) ; De la vie et de l'intelligence (1858) ; De la raison, du genie, et de la folie (1861) ; Examen du livre de M. Darwin sur l'Origine des Especes (1864) . For a list of his papers see the Royal Society's Catalogue of Scientific Papers.