French physician, clergyman and botanist from Alès who trained at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Montpellier, graduating as a doctor in 1726. He was subsequently appointed professor of medicine after the death of Aymé-François Chicoyneau (1702-1740). Sauvages corresponded extensively with Linnaeus and when the latter refers in his publications to 'Sauv. monsp.', he is referring to Sauvage's Methodus Foliorum, seu Plantae Florae Monspeliensis .... He was the first botanist at Montpellier to adopt Linnaean principles and developed an artifical method for classifying French plants based on leaf morphology alone, advocating the development of similar systems to accomodate all species.

His name is variously cited and differs between botanical, medical and other texts as on the title page of his own flora of Montpellier which gives his name as 'De Sauvages'. As a physician, his surname is usually given as 'Boissier de Sauvages' and he published the first methodical nosology or description of disease symptoms in 1763. Sauvages emphasized symptomatology as the basis for classification and accurate identification of disease, as there was little or no contemporary information on the cause of disease. His methodology was subsequently adopted by Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), founder of homeopathy. As a botanist, Sauvages is commemorated by the genus Sauvagesia L. in the Ochnaceae.