Caballero_ (Seville, 1878).

(J. F.-K.)

CABANEL, ALEXANDRE (1823-1889), French painter, was born at Montpellier,
and studied in Paris, gaining the Prix de Rome in 1845. His pictures soon
attracted attention, and by his "Birth of Venus" (1863), now in the
Luxembourg, he became famous, being elected that year to the Institute. He
became the most popular portrait painter of the day, and his pupils
included a number of famous artists.

CABANIS, PIERRE JEAN GEORGE (1757-1808), French physiologist, was born at
Cosnac (Correze) on the 5th of June 1757, and was the son of Jean Baptiste
Cabanis (1723-1786), a lawyer and agronomist. Sent at the age of ten to the
college of Brives, he showed great aptitude for study, but his independence
of spirit was so excessive that he was almost constantly in a state of
rebellion against his teachers, and was finally dismissed from the school.
He was then taken to Paris by his father and left to carry on his studies
at his own discretion for two years. From 1773 to 1775 he travelled in
Poland and Germany, and on his return to Paris he devoted himself mainly to
poetry. About this time he ventured to send in to the Academy a translation
of the passage from Homer proposed for their prize, and, though his attempt
passed without notice, he received so much encouragement from his friends
that he contemplated translating the whole of the _Iliad_. But at the [v.04
p.0914] desire of his father he relinquished these pleasant literary
employments, and resolving to engage in some settled profession selected
that of medicine. In 1789 his _Observations sur les hopitaux_ procured him
an appointment as administrator of hospitals in Paris, and in 1795 he
became professor of hygiene at the medical school of Paris, a post which he
exchanged for the chair of legal medicine and the history of medicine in
1799. From inclination and from weak health he never engaged much in
practice as a physician, his interests lying in the deeper problems of
medical and physiological science. During the last two years of Mirabeau's
life he was intimately connected with that extraordinary man, and wrote the
four papers on public education which were found among the papers of
Mirabeau at his death, and were edited by the real author soon afterwards
in 1791. During the illness which terminated his life Mirabeau confided
himself entirely to the professional skill of Cabanis. Of the progress of
the malady, and the circumstances atte