Paul Joseph Barthez

Paul Joseph Barthez (11 December 1734 – 15 October 1806) was a French physician, physiologist, and encyclopedist who developed a take on the biological theory known as vitalism.

In 1757, his services were required in the medical staff of the army of Westphalia, where he had the rank of consulting physician, and on his return to Paris he acted as joint editor of the Journal des savants and the Encyclopédie méthodique.

[1] In 1778, he published his most famous work, Nouveaux élémens de la science de l'homme, in which he employs the expression "vital principle" as a convenient term for the cause of the phenomena of life, without committing himself to either a spiritualistic or a materialistic view of its nature.

Taking the degree of doctor of civil law in 1780, he secured the appointment of counsellor to the Supreme Court of Aids at Montpellier, but he soon took up his residence in Paris, having been nominated consulting physician to the king.

[1] Paul Joseph Barthez was called upon to edit or contribute several entries in the Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot and d’Alembert.