Brosses

Brosses, Charles de, historian, and first president of the Parliament of Burgundy, was born in 1709 at Dijon. Among his numerous works were Lettres sur Herculaneum, the first writings upon that interesting subject. He was the first also to introduce the names of Australia and Polynesia, and in a dissertation Sur le Culte des Dieux Fetiches, used the word fetish with the significance it now commonly bears. Though a busy writer, he never neglected his official duties, and died in 1777, while occupying the presidency.