COTTON DES HOUSSAYES, Jean-Baptiste, doctor and librarian of the Sorbonne, was born at Neuville-Chant-d'Oisel, near Rouen, in November 1727, and died at Paris in August 1783. He professed theology during fifteen years at Rouen, but with what success we are not informed. His works are, 1. Eloge Historique de M. Maillet du Boullay, Rouen, 1770, 8vo; 2. Eloge Historique de l'Abbé de Saas, 1775, 8vo; 3. Eloge Historique de Chamousset, prefixed to the Œuvres complètes de Chamousset, 1785, 2 vols. 8vo, which Cotton edited; and, 4. Several articles relating to botany, in the Journal de Physique of 1780. He had also laboured at a work on universal literary history, to be entitled Bibliothèque Raisonnée, the plan of which may be seen in the Année Littéraire of 1780, and in the Journal des Savans of 1781.