BARTHEZ (Psur. Joseph), one of the most ce lebrated physicians of the University of Montpellier, equally remarkable for the variety and extent of his erudition, as for the vigour of mind displayed in his abstruse speculations. He was boin on the 11th of December 1784, at Montpellier, and received his early education at Narbonne, where his family re sided, and afterwards at Toulouse. He soon gave decisive indications of those talents with which na ture had endowed him, and which destined him to occupy a distinguished station among the learned men of the age. Ardent in-his pursuit of knowledge, and uniting great quickness of apprehension, with a tenacious memory, his progress in every study which he attempted was more than ordinarily rapid ; he had a remarkable facility in acquiring languages, and at an early age, had made himself master of the an cient and of several modern ones. He seems to have been for some time uncertain what profession he should follow; but having at length, at the insti gation of his father, commenced the study of medi cine at Montpellier, in 1750, he pursued it with eagerness, and his success was proportionate to his exertions; for, in 1758, when he had only attained his 19th year, he received his doctor's degree. He afterwards occasionally visited Paris, where be con tinued to pursue his studies with indefatigable in dustry ; and attracting the notice, not only of those who were following the same objects, but of those who could better appreciate the full extent of his at tainments, was admitted to the society, and acquired the friendship of the most distinguished literati of that period. In 1756, he obtained the appointment of physician to the military hospital in Normandy, attach ed to the army of observation commanded by Marshal Destrees. The zeal and assiduity with which. he dia• charged the duties of his new office were most exem plary. He seemed determined to profit to the tit most by the extensive field of observation which was thus opened to him, And in which he could put to the test of experience the knowledge which he had , derived from othersources, and train himself in those habits of nice discrimination of symptoms, and of prompt decision in practice, without which learning is of little avail in the actual exercise of the art. He spent his whole time at the hospital, and often pass ed the night by the bed-side of his patients. Though
naturally of a good constitution, his strength was not commensurate with the ardour of his mind, and the tasks in which he engaged were frequently under taken without duly appreciating the physical powers necessary for accomplishing them. His health . suffered much from the intensity of his application, and'he was often very near falling a sacrifice to fevers and other disorders, which he caught from the patients in the hospital, whom he was attending too closely ; and he thence became liable ever after to attacks of dysentery and bilious fever.
Many of the observations and inquiries, which he made during this period, were published in the Me moirs of the Academy of Sciences; and two of his first productions were crowned by the Academy of Inscriptions. In 1757, his services were required in the medical staff of the army of Westphalia, where he had the rank of consulting physician. On his re turn to Paris, he contributed several articles to the Journal dei and to the Encyclopidie ; and was, indeed, considered for a time as one of the edi tors of the former of those works. In 1761, he be came candidate for a medical professorship at Mont pellier, which he fortunately succeeded in obtaining, and in which his abilities as a teacher soon shone forth with unrivalled lustre. His success was the more honourable, inasmuch as his colleagues, La mure, Leroy, and Venel, were men of distmguished reputation, and had raised the school to a high pitch of celebrity. But the singular perspicuity, and pre cision of method, and the peculiar grace and facility of elocution, with which Barthes conveyed to his hearers the ample stores of knowledge of which he was in possession, soon attracted a crowd of auditors, who spread his fame in all directions. He taught in. succession all the branches of the medical art ; and pronounced, at the openiqg of the session in 1772, a. 'Latin oration on the Vital Principle in man ; which . was published in the following year. About the same time appeared his work, entitled, NO va Doc trim de Functionibus Corporis Humani. These two. works contain a sketch of his peculiar doctrines in physiology ; doctrines which he more fully explained. in a subsequent book, under the title of Nouveaux. Elimens de la Science del' Homme, 8vo, Montpellier, 1778 ; and of which we shall presently give an ac count.