ANNALS 



OF 



PHILOSOPHY. 



OCTOBER, 1826. 



Article I. 



Biographical Notice of Joseph-Louis Proust^ Member of the 

 Institute, of the Legion of Honour, of the Royal Academy of 

 Medicine, and Professor of Pharmacy,^ 



France has recently lost one of the most illustrious of her 

 learned men. Joseph-Louis Proust died at Angers, his native 

 city, on the 5th of July last. This loss, which aflPects all who 

 are interested in the progress of science, will be most severely 

 felt by the professors of pharmacy, who have been deprived ox 

 one of their most honoured members ; — a man whose name will 

 be associated with those of Scheele and Rouelle ; with all the 

 most celebrated discoveries in pharmacy ; and in whom an 

 elevated genius was accompanied by a simpUcity of manners 

 and a modesty that heightened its splendour. 



Joseph-Louis Proust was born at Angers, in 1755, in which 

 city his father was an apothecary, and from his youth he was 

 intended for the same profession. Having completed the early 

 part of his education at home, he came to Paris, to work under 

 the direction of M. Clerambourg, a respectable apothecary. 

 He was there remarked for the zeal with which he studied 

 chemistry and the practice of his art, and he was not long in 

 reaping the reward of his labours. 



The office of Chief Apothecary at the Hospital de la Salp6- 

 triere becoming vacant, it was left open to competition ; young 

 Proust did not become a candidate, but some of his friends, 

 knowing his modesty and merit, placed his name in the list. 

 This competition was attended with brilliant success, and 

 formed the commencement of his reputation ; he obtained the 

 office with every vote in his favour, which procured him an 

 honourable subsistence, and the means of readily prosecu ing 

 the study of chemistry, for which he had an irresistible incli- 

 nation. 



* From the Journal de Pharmaciej for July, 1826. 



New Series^ vol, xii. r 



