Education

Colleges of Coutances and Caen then the Collège du Plessis in Paris. 1725-ca 1727: Collège d'Harcourt in Paris.

After that he studied at the Medical Faculty in Paris under the direction of François-Joseph Hunauld, but took his medical degree at Reims in 1733. He then spent a year at the University of Leyden.

Career

After his studies in Leyden, La Mettrie practised medicine in Brittany until he left for Paris in 1742. He was physician to the Duke of Grammont, patron of the Gardes françaises, to which La Mettrie became medical officer and served in the war, taking part in several battles and seiges. He also frequented intellectual circles in Paris . After the death of Grammont at the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745, he became inspector of the military hospitals in Flanders. After the publication of his satires against several doctors and L'Histoire naturelle de l'âme, which was condemned in 1746 by the Paris Parlement to be burnt, he went to Holland, from where he was forced to flee in early 1748 after the scandal caused by L'Homme machine. Thanks to the intervention of Maupertius, he was appointed physician at the court of Frederick II of Prussia. He arrived in Potsdam in 1748 and became a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. Before he died suddenly in 1751 he asked to be buried in the French ambassador's garden, but was buried in the French churchyard.

Financial Situation

La Mettrie earned his living mainly as a medical doctor, although he relied, as indicated above, on the patronage first of the Duke of Grammont and later of Frederick II of Prussia. Little else is known about his financial situation, although he seems to have owed money to the Dutch publisher of his Homme machine, Elie Luzac.