1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Duhamel, Jean Baptiste

DUHAMEL, JEAN BAPTISTE (1624–1706), French physicist, was born in 1624 at Vire in Normandy. He studied at Caen and Paris; wrote at eighteen a tract on the Spherics of Theodosius of Tripolis; then became an Oratorian priest, and fulfilled with great devotion for ten years (1653–1663) the duties of curé at Neuilly-sur-Marne. He was appointed in 1656 almoner to the king, and in 1666 perpetual secretary to the newly founded Academy of Sciences. He died on the 6th of August 1706. He published among other works: Astronomia physica (1660) and De meteoris et fossilibus (1660), both in dialogue form; De consensu veteris et novae philosophiae (1663); De corporum affectionibus (1672); De mente humana (1673); Regiae scientiarum Academiae historia, 1666–1696 (1698), new edition brought down to 1700 (1701); Institutiones biblicae (1698); followed by annotated editions of the Psalms (1701), of the Book of Wisdom, &c. (1703), and of the entire Bible in 1705.