t)6 Death; 



tion. Does not this Intimate, what would be Hltle expe£led, 

 that it probably contains a large portion of hydrogen ? 



DEATH. 



At Paris, on the 2^6. of 06loberlaft year, at the age of 77, 

 Louis James Gouffier, member of feveral learned focieties. 

 He was born in 1722, and applied at a very early period to 

 the ftudy of the mathematics. His firft labours were, to ar- 

 range and fuperintend the publication of the memoirs, which 

 the celebrated Condamine gave to the public in 175 1, on the 

 meafurement of the three firft degrees of the meridian in the 

 fouthern hemifphere. In confequence of the ability which 

 he difplayed by the part he took in this interefting work, he 

 was invited to co-operate in the Encyclopedic with Diderot 

 and D'Alembert. Being charged with the part refpefting 

 the mechanical arts, Gouffier exercifed feveral of them him- 

 felf, that he might be better able to give a defcription of 

 them; fuch as thofe of watch-making, lock-making, cabinet- 

 making, turning, &c. His articles difplay clearnefs, precifion, 

 and method. About the year 1760, the Baron de Marivet in- 

 vited Gouffier to refide with him, in order that he might im- 

 prove himfelf in natural philofophy. In 1779 they diftributed 

 the profpedlus of a New Philofophy of the World, which they 

 propofcd to publiffi conjointly, and which was to make four- 

 teen volumes in quarto ; but it was never carried farther than 

 the eicrhth. Gouffier was fond of travelling on foot, and in 

 this manner went over all France. He had a great attach- 

 ment to hydraulics, and was acquainted with every river and 

 canal in the kingdom. With the fame Baron Marivet he 

 pviblifhed, in 1789, a work, in two volumes odavo, on the 

 Internal Navigation of France, with an Atlas adapted to the 

 fubjc6l. He invented feveral curious pieces of mechanifm, 

 amonff which is a mill with portable arms for fawing planks. 

 This piece of mechanifm was fent to Poland to ferve as a 

 model for the mills deltined to manufafture the timber of 

 the immenfe forefts of that country. He invented alfo" a 

 water level, much ufed by land furveyors. 



