XI. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. 372 1. Remarks on a Note in the Second Number of the Journal of the Royal Institution. By Sir H. 374 378 380 381 383 390 393 XIV. Analytical Review of the Scientific Journals published on the Continent. 396 XV. Meteorological Diary for March, April, and May, kept at Earl Spencer's Seat, at Althorp in Northamptonshire. 419 Select List of new Publications during the last three Months. 422 Index. 425 THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND THE ARTS. ART. I. An Account of the Life and Writings of Baron GUYTON DE MORVEAU, F. R. S. Member of the Institute of France, &c. &c.-By A. B. GRANVILLE, M. D. F. L. S. M. R. C. S. &c. Foreign Secretary of the Geological Society. MORE than twelve months have elapsed since Guyton Morveau, a man known throughout Europe, paid the great debt of nature; and no friendly hand, no admiring follower, has been permitted to trace the page, which is to belong to him in the history of revolving ages. Duty on some of them, affection on others, might have imposed the pleasing task; but both are silent; and he who adorned the rank of a citizen-the post of a magistrate-the chair of a professor-and the more glorious character of a friend to humanity-has passed away like the traveller, who having quitted the populous and busy town, is soon forgotten by his merry companions. A few days more, and perpetual banishment from his native country, would have darkened the anniversary of his 80th year; for Guyton belonged to other days-to days of revolutionary efforts; and to such the time of retribution had arrived at the epoch of his dissolution. Hence the silence of all, save the murmurs of a few friends, and the plaintive sorrow of his disconsolate widow. These circumstances have induced me to collect in the following pages from good and authentic documents, such VOL. III. S particulars concerning G. Morveau as deserve to be rescued from oblivion.* Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau was born at Ljon, on the 4th of January, 1737, of Anthony Guyton and Marguerite de Saulle. His father Anthony Guyton, professor of civil law in the university of Dijon, was descended from an ancient and respectable family. His great grandfather had served as chief surgeon in the battalion of the "cent hommes," under the Duke de Bellegarde in 1629. Young Guyton's early education was not neglected. But while his father and his tutor were initiating him in the old routine of theories, nature taught him to resort to the practical acquisition of knowledge. Accustomed every day to see the various artificers, whom his father employed about his house to satisfy a caprice for building, young Guyton insensibly caught the spirit of mechanics. At the age of seven he had already given many instances of a disposition for that branch of philosophy; and this, which was in him improperly considered as a natural inclination, was the incontestable effect of example. Being with his father at a small village near Dijon, during the vacation, he there happened to meet a public officer returning from a sale, whence he had brought back a clock that had remained unsold, owing to its very bad condition. Morveau begs and supplicates his father to purchase it; six francs were given-the clock was dismounted and cleaned by the ardent boy-some pieces that were wanting were added—the whole put together as before, without any other assistance; and in 1799, that is, fifty-five years afterward, the clock was resold at a higher price, together with the estate and house in which it had been originally placed ; having during the whole of that time preserved its movement in the most satisfactory manner. The same operation he once undertook for his mother's watch to her perfect satisfaction, though he was then only eight years of age. *I am happy in this opportunity of acknowledging the liberal and friendly assistance which I have received from Madame Morveau, and from several of the early and intimate friends of her deceased husband. These trivial details might be multiplied; but they might also appear tedious and unimportant; they have been mentioned to show how impossible it is to predict from the early whims of childhood, the vocation which is to engage any individual at a more advanced period of life. No one has shown less taste for mechanics than Guyton, during his long and brilliant career. After the first years of instruction under his paternal roof he was sent to college, where he finished his studies at the age of sixteen. About this time a M. Michault, a friend of his father, and a naturalist of some merit, proposed to instruct him in botany. Among his companions in this study was Guyette, who was intended for the church, and who, while engaged in theological studies, was often severely reprimanded by the rector, for having in his cell the works of Linnæus! Such were then the liberal ideas of the French clergy. After having passed through all the dangers of the subsequent revolution, Guyette was poisoned by his maid-servant, who was afterward tried, convicted, and executed. Having now acquired greater maturity of understanding, young Guyton was admitted a law student in the university of Dijon, and after three years of close application, was sent to Paris to acquire a knowledge of practice at the bar. The more sober studies of the law, however, did not prevent him from cultivating various branches of polite literature, on which subjects he corresponded with several friends who were eminent in the belles-lettres. A visit which he paid to Voltaire in 1756, at Ferney, seems to have given him, at one time, a turn for poetry; particularly of the descriptive and satiric kind. We might instance the agreeable poem which he composed a year afterward, when only twenty, called "Le Rat Iconoclaste,"* of which a new edition was published a few years before his death. It was intended to throw ridicule on a well-known anecdote of the * Le Rat Iconoclaste, ou le Jesuite croquée. Poëme heroi-comique, en vers, en six chants, 1763, without name of place, pp. 55, large 12mo. day, and to assist in quickening the fire, that already threatened destruction to the obnoxious order of Jesuits; but circumstances did not permit of its publication till after that order had fallen, as it was then hoped, never to rise again. Copies, however, were freely circulated in 1757. The adventure which furnished the subject for the author's mirth, was pleasant enough. Some nuns who felt a strong predilection for a Jesuit their spiritual director, were engaged in their customary Christmas occupation of modelling a representation of a religious mystery, decorated with several small statues representing the holy personages connected with the subject; and amongst them that of the ghostly father; but to mark their favourite, his statue was made of loaf sugar. The following day was destined for the triumph of the Jesuit; when it was discovered that some sacrilegious hand had pilfered the valuable puppet. A rat had, in fact, demolished the delicious morsel.* The poem is written after the agree * It may, perhaps, be worth while to give here some short extracts. We select the passages describing the installation of the sweet image by one of the nuns in the presence of the sisterhood; and the subsequent sacrilege. "Echarpe en main, cependant, soeur Elie Saisit déjà le directeur sucré, Le montre à tous, et d'un pas mesuré, Par le respect et la cérémonie, Va le porter près du berçeau sacré ; Elle l'y place, et tandis qu'on l'admire Telun joueur, lorsque sur l'échiquier |