Jean, a celebrated physician, born in 1684 at Saunès, in Languedoc. His father, a Protestant clergyman, bestowed particular pains upon his early education; after which he studied at the university of Montpellier, where, having commenced the study of medicine, he took his degree as doctor of physic in 1703. He now applied to the study of medical authors, both ancient and modern, with uncommon assiduity, and in 1710 published a treatise on muscular motion, from which he acquired very high reputation. In that year he was appointed to the chair of anatomy at Toulouse. In 1717 he was appointed to teach medicine at Montpellier. Rising rapidly into fame, he was successively appointed superintendent of the mineral waters of Languedoc; first physician to the king of Poland; and, in 1731, regius professor of medicine at Paris. Here he taught the practice of physic with so great applause, as to draw students from other universities, and from foreign countries. He was not more celebrated as a professor than a practitioner. Even at an advanced age he prosecuted his studies with unwearied assiduity; and was thus enabled to transmit to posterity so many valuable monuments of his medical erudition. He died on the 5th of May 1766, in the 82nd year of his age.

Of his numerous works, that on which his fame principally rests, is the treatise entitled De Morbis Venereis, libri sex, 1736, 4to; afterwards enlarged to 2 vols. 4to, and translated into French by Jault, 4 vols. 12mo. Besides these, he published some treatises not connected with medicine, one with the title of Conjectures sur les Memoires originaux qui ont servi à Moïse pour écrire la Genèse, Bruxelles (Paris), 1753, 12mo; and two dissertations on the Immateriality, Immortality, and Liberty of the Soul, Paris, 1755.