FLOURENS, Gustave (1838-1871), a French social democrat and writer, a son of Μ. J. P. Flourens, was born at Paris, August 4, 1838. Before he had attained his twenty-first year he obtained at the college of Louis-leGrand the diplomas of licentiate in letters and in sciences. In 1863 he undertook for his father a course of lectures at the Collège de France, the subject of which was the history of mankind. His theories as to the manifold origin of the human race, however, gave offence to the clergy, and he was precluded from delivering a second course. He then repaired to Brussels, where he published his lectures under the title of Histoire de Γ Homme; he next visited Constantinople and Athens, took part in the Cretan insurrection of 1866, spent some time in Italy, where an article of his in the Popolo dLtalia caused his arrest and imprisonment, and finally, having returned to France, nearly lost his life in a duel with Paul de Cassagnac, editor of the Pays. In Paris he devoted his pen to the cause of republicanism, and at length, having failed in an attempt to organize a revolution at Belleville, February 7, 1870, found himself compelled to flee from France. Returning to Paris on the downfall of Napoleon, he soon placed himself at the head of a body of 500 tirailleurs. On account of his insurrectionary proceedings he was taken prisoner at Créteil, near Vincennes, by the provisional government, and confined at Mazas, December 7, 1870, but was released by his men on the night of January 21-22. On the !8th March he joined the Communists. As colonel of the 19th and 20th arrondissements he took part in an attack on Versailles, and early in the morning of the 3d of April was killed in a hand-to-hand conflict at Rueil, near Malmaison. Besides his Science de I’ Homme ...(Paris, 1869), Gustave Flourens was the author of numerous fugitive pamphlets.
FLOURENS, Marie Jean Pierre (1794-1867), a celebrated French υhysiologist, was born at Maureilhan, near Béziers, in the department of Hérault, April 15, 1794. At the age of fifteen he began the study of medicine at Montpellier, where in 1823 he received the degree of doctor. In the following year he repaired to Paris, provided with an introduction from De Candolle, the botanist, to Cuvier, who received him kindly, and interested himself in his welfare. At Paris Flourens engaged in physiological research, occasionally contributing to literary publications; and in 1821, at the Athénée there, he gave a course of lectures on the physiological theory of the sensations, which attracted much attention amongst men of science. His paper entitled Recherches expérimentales sur les propriétés et les fonctions du système nerveux dans les animaux vertébrés, in which he, from experimental evidence, sought to assign their special functions to the cerebrum, corpora quadrigemina, and cerebellum, was the subject of a highly commendatory report by Cuvier, adopted by the French Academy of Sciences, July 22, 1822. He was chosen by Cuvier in 1828 to deliver for him a course of lectures on natural history at the Collège de France, and in the same year became, in succession to Bose, a member of the Institute, in the division “Economie rurale.” In 1830 he became Cuvier’s substitute as lecturer on human anatomy at the Jardin du Roi, and in 1832 was elected to the post of titular professor, which he vacated for the professorship of comparative anatomy created for him at the museum of the Jardin the same year. In 1833 Flourens, in accordance with the dying request of Cuvier, was appointed a perpetual secretary of the Academy of Sciences; and in 1838 he was returned as a deputy for the arrondissement of Bézierä. In 1840 he was elected, in preference to Victor Hugo, to succeed Michaud at the French Academy; and he was created on April 24,1845, a commander of the legion of honour, and in the next year a peer of France. In March 1847 Flourens directed the attention of the Academy of Sciences to the anaesthetic effect of chloroform on animals; and it is an interesting fact in the history of therapeutics that “chloric ether,” a ’spirituous solution of chloroform, was in the spring of the same year first employed, at the suggestion of Dr Μ. C. Furnell, in surgical operations at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. On the revolution of 1848, Flourens withdrew completely from the political world; and in 1855 he accepted the professorship of natural history at the College de France. Three years before his death, which took place at Montgeron near Paris, December 6, 1867, he retired from his active duties at the Academy of Sciences.
As an experimental physiologist Flourens holds the highest rank. Besides a multitude of shorter scientific memoirs, he published— Essai sur quelques points de la doctrine de la révulsion et de la dérivation, Montpellier, 1813; Expériences sur le système nerveux, Paris, 1825; Cours sur la génération, l'ovologic, et Vembryologie, 1836; Analyse raisonée des travaux de G. Cuvier, 1841; Recherches sur le développement des os et des dents, 1842; Anatomie générale de la peau et des membranes muqueuses, 1843; Buffon, histoire de ses travaux et de ses idées, 1844; Fontenelle, ou de la philosophie moderne relativement aux sciences physiques, 1847; Théorie expérimentale de la formation des os, 1847; Oeuvres complètes de Buffon, 1853; De la longévité humaine et de la quantité de vie sur le globe, 1854, numerous eds.; Histoire de la découverte de la circulation du sang, 1854; Cours de physiologie comparée, 1856; Recueil des éloges historiques, 1856; De la vie et de Vintelligence, 1858; De la raison, du génie, et de la folie, 1861; Ontologie naturelle, 1861; Examen du livre de Μ. Darwin sur l’Origine des Espèces, 1864. For list of papers see Royal Society’s Catalogue, vols. ii. and vii.
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