THE 



EDINBURGH NEW 

 PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. 



HISTORICAL ELOGE OF LOUIS NICOLAS VAUQUELIN. 



By Baron CuviER *. 



The respect which the members of the Academy entertain 

 for the memory of their illustrious associate, the late M. Vau- 

 quelin, obliges me again to bring forward his historical eloge, 

 which formed part of our business at the public meeting of last 

 year, and which ought to have been read, had time permitted, 

 along with that of Sir Humphry Davy. The patience and 

 perseverance which we had occasion to admire in the latter, and 

 which raised him from the most unpromising station to the en- 

 joyment of all the honours society can confer on its benefactors, 

 were not less conspicuous in M. VauqueHn, who had still greater 

 difficulties to overcome, as his parents were in a poorer condi- 

 tion, and he had fewer opportunities of instruction, 



Louis Nicolas VAuauELiN was born on the 16th of May 

 1763, in a cottage of the village of St Andre d'Hebertat, a 

 league and a half from Pont TEveque (Calvados) ; and an idea 

 may be formed of the condition of his family, from the circum- 



• This eloge of the celebrated chemist Vauqiielin, not yet published, 

 was sent in proof-sheet, through the kindness and attention of our friend Mr 

 Pentland of Paris. — Edit. 



VOL. XV. NO. XXX. OCT. 1833. o 



