Jean Znlema Amussat, a French surgeon, born at St. Maixent, department of Deux-Sevres, Nov. 21, 1796, died May 14, 1856. He commenced his career as a sub-assistant surgeon in the French army, and afterward became assistant surgeon at the hospital of La Salpetriere, under Esquirol, and prosector at the faculty of medicine of Paris. He invented and improved as many as 30 different surgical instruments, and was the first to show the importance of twisting a bleeding artery to arrest the haemorrhage, and also to point out the danger of phlebitis from the admission of air into the veins during an operation. His most important works are: Recherches sur le systeme nerveux (1825); Tables synoptiques de la lithotripsie et de la cystotomie hypogastrique (1832); Recherches sur l'introduction de l'air dans les veines (1832).