THE 



EDINBURGH NEW 

 PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. 



Biographical Memoir of Sir Benjamin Thomson, Count 

 Rurnford. By Baron Cuvier *. 



Benjamin Thomson, more commonly known by his German 

 title of Count Rurnford, was bora in 1758, in the English Co- 

 lonies of North America, at a place then called Rurnford, and 

 at present Concord, belonging to the State of New Hamp- 

 shire. His family, which was of English origin, cultivated 

 some lands there ; and he himself has said that he should pro- 

 bably have remained in the humble condition of his parents, 

 had he not in childhood been deprived of the little means they 

 were able to bequeath to him. Thus, Hke many other eminent 

 literary characters, it was to early misfortune that he owed his 

 subsequent good fortune and celebrity. 



His father died young. His mother having married again, 

 he was separated from her by his stepfather 5 and his grand- 

 father, from whom alone he had any thing to expect, had dis- 

 posed of all that he possessed in favour of a younger son, and 

 left him in almost complete destitution. 



There is nothing more calculated to induce a premature de- 

 velopment of intellect than such a condition as this. The young 

 Tliomson attached himself to a clergyman of learning, who un- 

 dertook to prepare him for the mercantile profession, by giving 

 him a smattering of mathematics. But the good minister also 

 • Read to the Institute of France. 



JANUAUy — AI'IIIL 1830. o 



