54+ THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the investigations of Thenard, Gay-Lussac, Chevreul, Dumas, Ba- 

 lard, and Pelouse. It is said that he hesitated at first between science 

 and music, but was finally attracted to chemistry by the lectures of 

 Dumas ; and, on leaving college, he constructed a laboratory at his 

 own expense, and pursued his researches without either master or pu- 

 pils for nearly nine years. He was not more than twenty years old 

 before he marked his place in science by an original work, the scale of 

 which he enlarged in the following years, exhibiting in it so many 

 proofs of an inventive and clear mind that he was sent to Besancon 

 to organize the newly-created faculty of sciences in that city, and be- 

 came its dean at the age of twenty-six years. Here, on invitation of 

 the municipal council, he undertook the analysis of the waters of the 

 river Doubs, and of the numerous springs around the town. Apply- 

 ing new and more exact methods, he ascertained the presence of ni- 

 trates and silicates in all the waters facts which were afterward con- 

 firmed by Boussingault, and shown by him to have an important bearing 

 on agriculture. This analytical talent out of the usual line, says M. 

 Pasteur in his funeral eulogy, which was one of the features of De- 

 ville's genius, never abandoned him ; and, " if you review the field of 

 his persevering labor as a whole, you will find it marked at every step 

 by evidences of a passionate seeking for the most perfect analytical 

 methods. That rigor of analysis, which is the probity of the chemist, 

 . . . Deville communicated to all his pupils, and it may be seen to 

 shine in the labors of all those whom he inspired of Debray, Troost, 

 Fouque, Grandeau, Hautefeuille, Gemez, Lechartier, and many others." 



In 1851, when thirty-three years old, Deville succeeded Balard in 

 the chair of Chemistry in the Higher Normal School in Paris, where 

 he worked at tasks which have led to the enrichment of wealthy manu- 

 facturers, and with an ardor which made the laboratory of this institu- 

 tion a central point of chemical investigation for all Europe as well as 

 for France, for the modest salary of three thousand francs, or six hun- 

 dred dollars. In 1854 he assumed, in addition to his work here, the 

 duties of a lectureship, which fourteen years later became a full pro- 

 fessorship, in the Sorbonne. 



M. Deville's first researches were in organic chemistry, and began 

 to attract attention in 1840, when he published a remarkable study of 

 turpentine-oil and various derivatives of the terpenes, the carefully 

 tabulated results of which form the chief basis of our knowledge of 

 the different isomeric states of this group. It was followed in 1842 

 by a research on toluene, which has had an important bearing in the 

 researches on the aniline colors. 



He soon afterward turned away from this branch of the science to 

 devote himself to mineral chemistry, in which, says M. Pasteur, he for 

 thirty years held the scepter in France and Europe. 



His first great discovery in this department was announced in 1849, 

 when he demonstrated the existence of anhydrous nitric acid, and de- 



