DUPUIS, CHARLES-FRANCOIS. 



DUPPYTREN, BARON. 



in the College of Berlin, and sueoeesor to ThMbault ; and the offer 

 was accepted by Duping. The death of Frederick however prevented 

 the arrangement from being carried into effect ; but the chair of Latin 

 eloquence in the College of France becoming then vacant by the 

 death of Bejot, he wa appointed to fill it In the mine year (1778) 

 be was named a member of the Academy of Inscriptions, and was 

 appointed one of the four commissioners of public instruction for the 

 department of Parin. The danger of hi* residence in the capital now 

 induced him to seek a retreat at EVITUX. He was, notwithstanding 

 bis retirement, named member of the Convention for the department 

 of Seine-et-Oue; and was remarkable for the moderation of his views. 

 Caution was the characteristic of his political cnreer. In the year II. 

 he was elected secretary of the Assembly ; and in the following year 

 a member of the Council of Five Hundred. He was elected one of the 

 forty-eight members of the French Institute, though after much 

 determined and discreditable opposition from the ultra-revolution 

 party. On the ISth Brnmaire, year IV.. he was elected by the depart- 

 ment of Seine-tt-Oise their member of the legislative body, and soon 

 after president of that assembly, and ultimately was nominated a 

 candidate for the senate. Hopeless of the regeneration of France, he 

 retired at once from public life, and devoted the remainder of his days 

 to the investigations of the questions which orose out of his early 

 speculations. We have hence to trace his progress only as a man of 

 letters and a man of science, and to give some general idea of the 

 views which are contained in his several works. 



On Uie publication of the 'Hemoire sur les Constellations' a new 

 course of erudite inquiry was opened ; and though the arguments anil 

 conclusions were contested by Bailly, ho gave Dupuis full credit for 

 Uie ability and learning displayed in the work. He afterwards 

 renewed bis researches, and made them the subject of a course of 

 lectures delivered from his chair in the college of Lisieuz. In 1794 

 be published his great work entitled ' Origine de toua les Cultes, ou 

 la Religion Universelle,' 3 vols. 4to, with an Atlas ; and also, slightly 

 bridged in one of its parts (the 'Justification'), in 12 vola. Svo, 

 This work gave rise to much discussion, often conducted with a 

 eectariau bitterness little creditable to philosophical or theological 

 investigation. In 1798 he published an abridgment of the 'Origiue' 

 in one vol. Svo, or rather a series of extracts from his large work, 

 under the same title ; but a much more methodical abridgment was 

 l.ortly after given to the world by Destutt-de-Tracy. 



The wildly-displayed hatred towards Christianity which so strongly 

 developed itself during the eventful period of the French Revolution 

 was well calculated to create deep interest in the work of Dupuis. 

 He had been led to conclude that the earliest traces of the general 

 mythology of the southern climates would be found in Upper !'/>; t. 

 if indeed they had not their origin there. In this celebrated work 

 therefore originated the 'Commission' to explore the ruins of that 

 country, which was undertaken by Napoleon after his return from 

 Italy. Nothing indeed can show so clearly the influence which this 

 work had exercised over the ' regenerated nation,' as that the most 

 ambitious of all the men of his time should leave the scene of the 

 most glittering hopes to a daring spirit like his, to lead an expedition 

 such as this. Out of that expedition what new and unexpected 

 result* have arisen ! The very phraseology of history has been 

 changed ; and the sacred rites and domestic manners of ancient 

 Egypt are now scarcely, if at all, less understood than those of Greece 

 and Rome. 



The Zodiac of Tentyra (or Dcnderah) engaged much of the attention 

 of Dupuis, upon which be published a Me'moire and an Explication, 

 in the ' Itevue Pbilosophiquc' for May 1306, which he afterwards pub- 

 lished in an enlarged and separate form, in 1 vol. 4to, under the title 

 of ' Mrmuire explicatif du Zodiaque Chronologique et Mythologiquc.' 

 In tin- curious dissertation he compares the Greek am) I: 

 zodiacs with those of the Chinese, the Persians, the Arabs, and nil the 

 others of which be could obtain any distinct notices. He afterwards 

 read to his class of the Institute a ' Memoire sur le I'lu'iiix.' which, as 

 be contended, signified the reproduction of the cycle of 1461 common 

 (vague) Egyptian years. In the ' Nouvel Almanaoh des Muses' for 

 1805 he also published a fragment of the poem of Nonuius; it is 

 indeed said that hi* astronomical system was suggested by this poem 

 originally, and it is certain that his 'Origine dci Cultes' is but a 

 voluminous commentary on the ideas contained in that poem. 



Dupuis died at Inur-Tillo on September 29, 1809, aged sixty-seven. 

 He was a member of the Legion of Honour. He was a man of strict 

 probity, and much esteemed by his friends for bis personal qualili. . 

 lie auia>cd no fortune, being satisfied to expend his income upon the 

 materials for bis researched 



He left in manuscript a work on Cosmogonies and Theogonics, 

 intended as a defence and iiluntration of the doctrines of the ' Origine 

 dM Coltea,' In this work Leblond considered that Dupuis bad at last 

 discovered the interpretation of the Egyptian hieroglyphic* a con- 

 elusion that frw, since the researches of Dr. Young and Champollion, 

 will (stl disposed to admit There is also reaon to believe that it 

 was in con-equence of conversations with Dupuis that Volney com- 

 posed bu celebrated work on Uie ' Kuins of Empire*.' 



Dupuis baa been often stigmatised as a paradoxical writer. Bold 

 and speculative he wan, but thtre is certainly little cause to call him 

 paradoxical. Hi* conjecture* are often plausible, though his deduc- 



tions from them are frequently inconsequential. Whatever might 

 have been the immediate effort of his scepticism, there can be little 

 doubt that the ultimate effect ha* been alike favourable to early history 

 and to the Chrutian religion. He was a sincere and candid man, and 

 always appeared to be fully impressed with the truth of the conclusions 

 at which he had arrived. It was indeed that earnestness of character 

 that gave so much weight to his opinions and so much influence to 

 his suggestions. Had this feature been wanting in the character of 

 Dupuis, the expedition to Egypt would never have been undertaken, 

 nor consequently would the brilliant discoveries to which it finally led 

 have been made. 



DUPUIS, THOMAS SAUNDERS, Mas. Doc., the composer of much 

 good music for the chapels-royal, and a very distinguished organist, 

 was born in London in 1733, and received his education in the royal 

 chapel, of which he became organist and composer on the death of 

 Dr. Boyce in 1779. In 1790 he was admitted to the degree of Doctor 

 in Music by the University of Oxford, and died in 1796. After hin 

 death a selection from his works was published in two volumes, by 

 bis pupil, John Spencer, Esq., nephew and son-in-law of the Duke of 

 Marlborough; but many of his best productions still continue in 

 manuscript, and remain buried in the books of the king's chapel, 

 among several other compositions of undisputed merit. 



DUPUYTREN, GUILLAUME, LE BARUN, was born at Pierre- 

 Bufliere, a little village of the department of Haute-Vienne, in r'r.aic, , 

 ou the 5th of October 1777. His parents were poor, and at the age 

 of three years ho was stolen from them by a lady of rank, who wished 

 to adopt him as her son. He was however returned to his parents, 

 and received his early education at the college of Magnac-l.avul. 

 During one of his college vacations, whilst he was playing in his 

 native village when a troop of cavalry passed through, one of the 

 officers was much struck with the appearance of young Dupuytren, 

 and being pleased with his answers to his questions, obtained his own 

 and his parents' consent to take him with him to Paris, and to cdm-at u 

 him. The officer had a brother in the College de la Marche, under 

 whose care Dupuytren was placed. Here he had a brilliant career, 

 and determined on pursuing medicine as a profession. He commenced 

 the study of pharmacy under Lagrange and Yauquelin, and also 

 attended the dissecting-room. He is described at this time as occu- 

 pying a room with a fellow-student, the furniture of which consisted 

 of three chairs, a table, and a sort of bed on which the friends alter- 

 nately reposed; and their mean* were so scanty that they wore obliged 

 to live on bread and water. During this period he always commenced 

 his work at four o'clock in the morning. 



In the mouth Friuiaira of the year III. of the republic of 1 

 (the end of 1794), a new school of medicine was formed in 1'aris under 

 Fourcroy. The office of prosector, as well as the chairs of tl 

 fessors, were given by concours; for one of these positions Dupuytren 

 contended, and was placed first on the list His emolument was 

 barely sufficient to keep him in health. In 1S01 he contended with 

 M. Dumeril for the position of chef des travaux anatomiques, which 

 he lost by one vote ; but a few months after, Dumeril having been 

 appointed to a professorship, the place was given to Dupuytren. 



Up to this time morbid anatomy had only been pursued in the same 

 manner as descriptive anatomy. Little had been done towards regard- 

 ing the appearances of bodies after death as the result of certain 

 definite actions in life; and the facts recorded by Bartholin, lionet, 

 Mangel, Morgagni, and Lieutnud, had never been systeuiatised, nor 

 any general principles deduced from them. Dupuytren saw this, and 

 devoted himself with ardour to pathological anatomy. He however 

 determined to connect this branch of inquiry with surgery. The 

 results of bis labour were not however published by himself, as indeed 

 very little that he has dono has ever been, but appeared in a work by 

 M. Mamndel, entitled ' Essai sur les Irritations,' 1'aris, 1S07. In tt.i 

 work the organic lesions of the body are distributed into species, 

 genera, orders, and classes; and although the work contains many 

 errors of observation, aud much hasty generalisation, it must bo 

 regarded as a successful effort towards forming a science of morbid 

 anatomy. 



In 1003 Dupuytrcu took his degree in the faculty of medicine. < >u 

 this occasion ho wrote a thesis on some points of aut< my, physiology, 

 chemistry, and pathological anatomy. This thesis contained important 

 statements of facts and deductions. The principal subjects were, the 

 structure of the various canals of the bones, the use of the lateral 

 ligaments, the nature of the chyle, and the nature of the morbid 

 formation* called false membranes. It was published in Paris in 

 1804. In 1803 a society was constituted in the faculty of mcdicii.o 

 for the purpose of discussing and publishing paper* on medical sub- 

 jects. From 1804 to 1821 this society published seven volumes, under 

 the title Bulletin de la Facultd de Mnlccine de Paris, et de la Sociuto 

 t'tablio dans son sein,' Svo. The bulletins were drawn up by Merat 

 and Dtimenl, and contain a great number of reports and memoirs 

 which had been communicated to the society by 1 Mipuytren. Among 

 the most important were papers on the influence of organic lesions on 

 health; a decription of several monstrous fcutuses; description of 

 two children, one a dwarf, the other a giant ; and on the cause of 

 death in drains and cess-pools. The result of his researches on this 

 last subject led to important alteration* in the construction of drains, 

 &c., so as to secure a more perfect ventilation, and thus the frequent 



