Born at
Paris, Petit studied medicine at
Montpellier, where he took the degree of
MD, though he did not practice medicine afterwards. Returning to Paris, he resided for some time with the president
Lamoignon, as tutor to his sons, and afterwards as a literary companion with
Aymar de Nicolai, first president of the
chamber of accounts. He died shortly after taking a wife.[1]
De nova Curandorum Morborum Ratione per Transfusionem Sanguinis. 1667, 4to. In which he objects to the then fashionable speculation relative to the cure of diseases by
blood transfusion.
Under the pseudonym Euthyphron:
Miscellanearum Observationum, libri iv. Utrecht, 1683, 8vo
Selectorum Poematum, liber ii. accessit Dissertatio de Furore Poetico. Paris, 1688, 8vo.
De Amazonibus, Dissertatio. Paris, 1685, 12mo. An attempt to prove, from medals and monuments, that a race of
amazons existed.
De Natura et Moribus Anthropophagorum, Dissertatio. Utrecht, 1688, 8vo.
He also wrote, under his own name:
Gelliani problematis explicatio, sive de continentia Alexandri Magni, et Publii Scipionis Africani. Dialogus. Paris, 1668, 12mo.
Within the dialogue, which he narrates, he appears as Euthyphro.
In 1726, his Commentary on the first three books of
Aretaeus appeared together with Life of Petit by
Maittaire.
Notes
^John Gorton, (1835), A General Biographical Dictionary
^Robert Watt, (1824), Bibliotheca Britannica; or, A general index to British and foreign literature, page 749