Biographical Memoirs of Peter Francis Bcrnler. 103 



meat. Thus the septic acid, which is a nauseous and un- 

 healthy thing, is neutraliiied, and the muriatic iicid, which 

 is savoury and wholesome, is substituted in its place. 



So likewise, as expcnnicnts have shown that the gall of 

 even herbivorous and grauiinivorous auiinals contains soda, 

 there is an easv method oi' explaining whence that peculiar 

 fluid gets its alkali. Either the 1u\.t must be a manufactory 

 of soda, from itsconstituent atoms or ingredients, or it must 

 be an organ separating and collecting that alkali from the 

 blood. The latter is the easier conjecture; and probably, as 

 the appetite for salt supplies the blood with a sufficiency of 

 that material, one of the functions of the great biliary eland 

 may be, to decompound as much of it as is necessary to 

 constitute an alkalescent, antipntrescent and healthy bile. 

 The learned and ingenious works you sent me have afforded 

 me much instruction; and I am highly pleased with the 

 free and liberal remarks on pestilential distempers which 

 your letter contained. As the origin ♦)f those calamitous oc- 

 currences can only be well understood by attending to the 

 history and effects of alkalies, you will instantly perceive 

 the reason why I have written vou so long an epistle on that 

 neutral compound, which is formed by the union of one of 

 them with the muriatic acid. 



Yours truly, &c. 



XVI. Biographical Memoirs o/" Peter Francis Bernier, 

 who accompanied Capt. Baudix, as Astronomer, on his 

 Voyage of Discover ij. By Lalande. 



X . F. Beun'ier was born at Rocheile, on the 19th of No- 

 vember 1779. His father, who had lost his place, — that of 

 an intendant, — did every thmg in his power to prevent the 

 education of his son from bemg neglected. During seven 

 \-ears he kept him under the care of a nraster, who dis- 

 charged his task so well that his pupil, when he attained to 

 }iis fourteenth year, had made considerable progress in Latin 

 and other branches of study. He procured for him also 

 private instructors in the mathen)atics and music. His 

 friend Ingres, who was afterwards a distinguished pupil of 

 David, taught him drawing. In his literary pursuits and 

 recreations he soon displayed a manly character, and asso- 

 ciated oniv with young men fond of knowledge, with whom 

 he conversed on subjects of science. In his fifteenth year 

 he delivered an oration, in a public assembly, on filial piety, 

 which was written with so much interest and feeling that it 

 G 4 was 



