QUESNAY FRANCOIS, a celebrated physician and political economist, was born at Ecquivilly, or, as some say, at Mercy, in 1694, and was the son of a common labourer, or a small farmer. His education was en tirely neglected ; and he is said to have learned to read the Maison Rustique of Liebaut, by means of a few lessons ftorn the village gardener; and by the aid of his master, the surgeon of Ecquivilly, he acquired a knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages. The as sistance thus given to our young student was amply re paid ; for when his master applied for admission to the college of St. Come, he presented several essays, writ ten by Quesnay, which were received with high ap plause. This little incident roused the ambition of Quesnay, and excited him to repair to Paris, where he prosecuted most ardently his medical studie., and be gan also his metaphysical researches by the perusal of Malebranche's Recherche de la Verite. At this time, an accidental acquaintance with Cochin, of the Royal Aca demy, induced him to acquire front that artist a know ledge of drawing and surgery, which he found of great use in his professional pursuits.
Having completed his studies at Paris, he settled at Nantes, a town of considerable magnitude, in his native province; but from some low jealousy of his talents, the corporation of surgeons refused to admit him into their body. He accordingly returned to Paris, and having passed his examinations in the most successful manner, he was ordered to be admitted into the corporation at Names in 1718.
The reputation which he acquired in this town, re commended him particularly to the Duke de Villeroy, whose family he attended ; and he was induced to ac company his Grace to Paris in 1730, as his family sur An event of a very accidental nature happened to, him at this time, which laid the foundation of his fu ture success in life. Having called at the Countess D'Estrade's along with the Duke, Quesnay remained in the carriage. During the visit, the Countess was seized with an epileptic fit, so that Quesnay was in stantly summoned into the house, and perceiving the nature of the disease, which had scarcely begun, he ordered the Duke and the other attendants out of the room, and contrived to conceal the nature of the ma lady. Grateful for the kindness and skill of Quesnay, the Countess recommended him to Madame Pompa dour, who made him her family physician, and procur ed him, in 1737, the situation of surgeon in ordinary to the King.
Having written a refutation of the doctrines of Silva, respecting blood-letting, he exhibited such zeal and knowledge in a public controversy in which this in volved him, that M. Peyronie got him appointed secre tary to the academy of surgery, which he had succeed ed in establishing in 1731. For the memoirs of this academy, he wrote the preface to the first volume, and many articles on particular branches of surgery, which have always been much admired. The labours of this office having begun to injure his heal th,which had been delicate from repeated attacks of the gout, he wished to quit the arduous duties of a surgeon, and he accord ingly took his degree of M.D. in 1744, and was soon
after appointed consulting physician to his majesty, in which capacity he attended his royal master in the campaigns of 1744 and 1745. Amid the bustle and distractions of a military life, he collected the materials of his Traits des Fievres continues, which appeared in, 1753, in 2 vols. 12mo.
After the Dauphin had undergone the small pox, the King presented him with letters of nobility ; and from the confidence which he always placed in the judg ment of our author, in consequence of which he called him son penseur, he gave him three pensee• flowers for his arms, with the motto of Profiler cogitationem mewls.
The good fortune of Quesnay had now placed him. in circumstances of comparative ease and affluence, and he seems to have employed his leisure in republishing some of his medical works, and in completing those which he had planned. He republished, in 1747, an enlarged edition, in 3 vols., of his Essai Physique sur l'Economie .4nimale, which first appeared in 1736, and which, in the opinion of Haller, is more characterized by hypothesis than by sound practical views. In 1748 ap peared his Examen In:partici des Contestations des Me dicins et des Chirurgiens de Paris. In 1749 he pub lished, in 4to., his .M- moire Presents au Roi, par son Premier C/zirurgien, ou l'on examine la sogesse de l'an sienne Legislation, stir l'etat de la C/zirurgie en France. In the same year appeared his Traits de la Suppuration, in 12mo., and his 7'ralte de la Gangrene, the last of which is still held in the highest esteem. In 1744 he published his Recherches Critiques et Historiques sur Origine, sur les divers elate, ct snr le Progres de la Chi rurgie France, a work which called forth some oppo sition n relation to the alleged inaccuracy of the histo rical statements.
After the publication of his Treatise on Fevers in 1753, Quesnay seems to have directed himself princi pally to the study of political economy. He contribut ed the articles Fermier and Grains to the volume of the Encyclopaedia, which appeared in 1756 and 1757. His Tableau Economique was printed at Versailles in 1758, with the Maximes Generales de Government Eco nomique annexed to it. Although the author had been much afflicted by the gout, yet his mental faculties re mained unimpared. At the end of his life he occupied himself with the study of mathematics. He died at Ver sailles in December 1774, in the 80th year of his age. An account of the territorial system of Quesnay will be found in our article PoLrricAL Ecoxomy, in this Volume, p. 39; and farther particulars respecting him will be found in his Eloge, in the Memoirs of the Academy for 1774 ; Eloy's Diction. Historique de la Medicine; the Count D'Albon's Eloge, in the Ephemerides du Citoyen, for 1775 ; Marmontel's Memoirs; and Chalmers' Bio graphical Dictionary, vol. xxv.
See MERCURY, in CHEMISTRY and BlINERALOGY Indexes.