162 Biographical Notice of [Sept. 



were rewarded by the notice and personal friendship of 

 M. Thirion. 



His earliest publications were translations into Italian of Berg- 

 man's Treatise on Volcanic Substances, and of Cronstedt's 

 Mineralogy, to each of which works he added notes. The 

 reputation acquired by these, and by some papers which 

 appeared in the Journal de Physique, aided by the good offices 

 of his friend de Rochefoucault, obtained for him the unexpected 

 honour of corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences. 

 Deeply affected by the distinction conferred by this learned 

 body, he was the more willingly led to regard as a duty that 

 devotion of himself to the service of science which was now 

 become his ruling passion. In pursuance of this resolution, at 

 the age of 26, he resigned his commission in the Carbineers, 

 retaining, however, his connexion with the Order of Malta, in 

 which he rose, in process of time, to the rank of Cornmandcur, 

 and entered on a laborious but interesting course of mineralo- 

 gical study. 



He first established himself in Sicily, for the purpose of 

 examining on the spot the geological connexion of Etna with 

 the non-volcanic part of the island, of investigating the 

 distinctive characters, if such exist, by which the acknowledged 

 products of volcanos may be separated from the class of trap 

 rocks, and of resolving many important inquiries relative to the 

 proximate causes of volcanic eruptions, the degree of heat 

 required to maintain the fluidity of lava, and the materials of 

 which these destructive torrents are composed. 



From Sicily he passed into Italy, and examined repeatedly, 

 and with profound attention, not only Vesuvius, but also the 

 numerous extinct volcanos which occupy a considerable portion 

 both of the coast and of the interior of the country between 

 Rome and Naples. These craters, some of which still pour out 

 sulphureous and mephitic exhalations, and hence have formed 

 the scene of many a poetical tale and superstitious legend from 

 the days of the Cumeean Sibyl and of Virgil to the present time, 

 furnished to the philosophical spirit of Dolomieu many rich 

 accessions of fact and of theory. At Naples he commenced an 

 acquaintance with Sir W. Hamilton, the British Embassador,' 

 which similarity of pursuits soon ripened into intimacy. 



The Lipari Islands were the next object of his researches : he 

 examined them with great attention, and made them the subject 

 of a separate work, entitled " Voyage aux lies de Lipari" which 

 was published in 1783. 



The destructive earthquakes which desolated Calabria in the 

 same year excited, as might have been expected, in an especial 

 degree, the notice of Dolomieu. Repairing to the scene of ruin, 

 he examined, with the most lively interest, the effects produced 

 by this event on the face of the country, ascertained that the 

 whole tract was covered by calcareous strata, without the smallest 



