Mathurin Jacques Brisson, French zoologist and philosopher (b. 1723)
Mathurin Jacques Brisson (30 April 1723 – 23 June 1806) was a French zoologist and natural philosopher.
Brisson was born at Fontenay-le-Comte. The earlier part of his life was spent in the pursuit of natural history; his published works in this field included Le Règne animal (1756) and the highly regarded Ornithologie (1760).As a young man, he was a disciple and assistant of René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur. For a period of time he was an instructor of physical sciences and natural history to the family of the monarch. He held the chair of physics at the College of Navarre, and from 1759 was a member of the Academy of Sciences.
A significant work involving the "specific weight of bodies" was his Pesanteur Spécifique des Corps (1787). In his investigations of electricity, Brisson was opposed to the theories of Priestley and Franklin.He died at Croissy-sur-Seine near Paris.