Flourens. I. Marie Jean Pierre, a French physiologist, born in Maureilhan, Herault, April 15, 1794, died at Montgeron, near Paris, Dec. 6, 1867. He received the degree of doctor of medicine when only 19 years old, and went to Paris, where he became acquainted with Chaptal, the Cuviers. and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. In 1821 he delivered a course of public lectures on the physiological theory of sensation, and presented to the academy of sciences a series of papers on the organization of men and animals. He was already a contributor to the Revue encyclopedique and to the Dictionnaire classique d'histoire naturelle. In 1822 his essay on the Determination des pro-prietes du systeme nerveux was highly praised by Cuvier for accuracy and originality. His reputation was further enhanced by Lis Re-cherches sur les conditions fondamentales de land it ion et sur les diverses causes de surdite (1824). and by his Recherches experimental sur h:s proprietes et lesfonctions du systeme nerveux dans les animaux vertehres, which he completed in 1825 by his Experiences sur le systeme nerveux. The last two papers present a very ingenious and thorough method of determining the relations of the individual organs to the various phenomena of intellect, sensation, and motion.

In 1828 he was admitted to the academy of sciences, and appointed assistant professor of natural history in the college de France. Two years later he became assistant lecturer on comparative anatomy at the jardin des plantes; in 1832 titular professor at the museum; and in 1835 professor of natural history in the college de France. From 1841 to 1854 he published a series of small works, giving in a condensed form and perspicuous style the history and philosophy of several branches of science. His Cours sur la genealogie, Vovologie et Vem-bryologie, delivered at the museum of natural history and published in 1836 by Deschamps, and his Cours de physiologie comparee: de Vontologie, ou etude des etres, are equally remarkable for perspicuity and fulness. His Anatomie generate de la peon et des membranes muqueuses (4to, 1843) is intended to demonstrate anatomically the physical unity of mankind; and his Theorie experimentale de la formation des os (1847) contains a demonstration of the principle that " matter changes and is renovated incessantly, while form and force persist/' His most popular book is De la longevity humaine et de la quantite de vie sur le globe (1854). In 1853-5 he published an annotated edition of the complete works of Buffon. Among his later works are: Ontologie naturelle (12mo, 1861); Examen du livre de AT. Darwin sur Vorigine des especes (1864); and De Lunite de composition et du debat entre Cuvier et Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (18mo, 1865). In 1837 he was a member of the chamber of deputies for Beziers; in 1846 Louis Philippe made him a peer of France; and in 1864 he was a member of the municipal council of Paris; but he never took an active part in politics.

At the time of his death he was perpetual secretary of the academy of sciences.

II. Gustave, a French agitator, son of the preceding, born in Paris, Aug. 4, 1838, killed at Chatou, near that city. April 3, 1871. He filled in 1863 his father's chair at the college de France, and published Science de Vhomme (1865) and other works. In 1866-8 he participated in the Cretan insurrection in the field and as a member of the Cretan assembly, and became involved in difficulties with the French minister at Athens. On his return to Paris his denunciations of Napoleon III. caused him to be arrested in April, 1869; and on his release three months afterward he was severely wounded in a duel with Paul Granier de Cassagnac, who had attacked him in his journal. He warmly supported the election of Rochefort as a deputy in November, became one of the founders and the chief editor of the Marseillaise newspaper, and was the master spirit of the demonstration at the funeral of Victor Noir, who had been shot by Prince Pierre Bonaparte. When Rochefort was arrested early in 1870, Flourens attempted an armed resistance, and was sentenced to three years' imprisonment. He fled to England, returned to Paris on the eve of the revolution of Sept. 4, and as a commander in the national guard took a conspicuous part in subsequent outbreaks.

Early in 1871 he was again arrested and sentenced to death, but escaped. He reappeared in Paris after the insurrection of March 18, when he was elected member of the commune and the military commission, and commander of a regiment. At the disastrous termination of the march on Versailles, in which he commanded one of the three divisions, he was attacked by a body of gendarmes in a house in which he had taken refuge, and killed.