Paul Joseph Barthez (1734-1806), French physician. Barthez was born in Montpellier, France, and was educated in Narbonne and Toulouse. After a period as a military physician, he returned to Montpellier and was awarded a professorship in 1759. In 1778, he proposed a vitalism theory that the human body is composed of three parts: the body, the soul, and the vital principle. In 1780, Barthez was nominated consulting physician to the king and moved to Paris. He retired to Carcassonne having lost much of his fortune during the French Revolution and died in Paris in 1806.