Jean Etienne Dominique Esquirol, a French physician and philanthropist, born in Toulouse, Jan. 4, 1772, died Dec, 12, 1840. He was studying at Paris when the revolution broke out, and led him to enter the medical service of the army. In 1794 he attended the military hospital in Narbonne, and on his return to Paris he became Pinel's assistant in the Salpetriere, and took at the same time an able part in the editing of Pinel's medical journal (Medecine clinique). In 1799 he founded a lunatic asylum, which became the model of all similar institutions afterward founded in France. He was appointed physician to the Salpetriere in 1811. In 1817 he opened a course of clinical lectures, in which he pointed out the reforms needed in the treatment of lunatics, and at the same time became one of a government commission on the subject, In 1823 he was appointed inspector general of the university for the faculties of medicine, and in 1825 physician-in-chief to the royal institution for the insane at Charenton. In 1830 he was deprived of his offices in consequence of his opposition to the July revolution. He contributed many important papers to the Encyclopedic des gens du monde, and to the great Dictionnaire des sciences medicales.

In 1838 he published a more elaborate work, Des maladies mentales, considerees sous les rapports medical, hygie-nique, et medico-legal (2 vols. 8vo).