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Rh 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&quot; 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. 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- 