Historical Elogd of J/. VauqueUii^ STT^ 



tience and sagacity; and yet the peculiar alkalies which' fdmi 

 the active principle in a great number of these medicinal sub^- 

 stances — Morphine, discovered by M. SertUner — Quinine, more 

 important still, first observed by MM. Pelletier and Caventou, 

 and others besides, were not the fruits of his laborious investi- 

 gations; so true is it that the most unremitting assiduity, and 

 greatest discrimination, are not always sufficient to attain to'tfi^ 

 truth, if not seconded by chance. ' '" 



But it is in the mineral kingdom, above all others, that tfii^ 

 labours of M. Vauquelin have led to results most important ^8S' 

 science. At the request of the Council for Mines, and aided 

 by the skilful assistants attached to that branch of the admini- 

 stration, he undertook a chemical analysis of minerals, at the 

 same time that M. Haiiy was occupied with the examination of 

 their crystalline structure, and other physical properties, for his 

 great work on mineralogy, which this same Council had asked 

 him to . undertake. On this occasion, M. Vauquelin co-ope- 

 rated with M. Haiiy as he had previously done with M. Four- 

 croy, and his name appears as often on the pages of that im- 

 mortal work as those of Kiaproth, Bergmann, and other ana- 

 lysts of highest name. ^l ,\M^^ tv-a^vi :.■•; j^^o »; , .... 



It was by his labours thai the %r6em'€iltrl5e?tweett the crys- 

 tallization of minerals and their composition was most satisfac- 

 torily exhibited. The similarity in composition which he often 

 observed between bodies of apparently different form, led Haiiy 

 to examine them anew, and to detect analogies of structure 

 which had escaped his notice ; and more frequently stilly a re- 

 semblance or difference in structure, was confirmed by the ap- 

 pearances presented by analysis. This was well exemplified by 

 the discovery of the earth named Glaucine by Vauquelin, who 

 was one of the first, according to Kiaproth, who have had the 

 honour to discover new elementary substances. The name of 

 this new earth is expressive of the saccharine taste possessed by 

 the salts which it forms with acids. Our chemist obtained it from 

 the beryl, or aigiie mar'me^y a kind of stone having the same 

 crystallization as the emerald. He had not at first remarked it 

 in the latter, owing, there can be qo doubt, to the sraalluess of 



* Journal des Mines, t. viii. p. 553.— Ann. de Chim. t. xxvl p. 166, et 

 170. 



