1818.] Jean Claude Delametherie. 3 



high principled ; but unfortunately his good qualities were 

 alloyed by some of an opposite kind. He was extremely jealous 

 of his literary reputation, of the most acute sensibility to sup- 

 posed affronts or injuries, and of a haughty and unbending 

 spirit ; so that his literary life was almost a perpetual scene of 

 warfare. His hatred of tyranny of all description, and his love 

 of impartiality and strict justice, tinged or biassed by his pecu- 

 liar temperament, led him generally to oppose his contempo- 

 raries and his countrymen, and to prefer to them those persons 

 who, having lived in former ages, or residing in distant countries, 

 were removed from rivalship, and were not liable to wound his 

 pride or self-love. Thus, almost as a matter of course, he set 

 himself in decided opposition to the new chemical nomenclature, 

 personally opposed Lavoisier, and generally objected to all the 

 doctrines of the modern pneumatic chemistry. It was with this 

 object that in 1789 he published his work on pure air, as he still 

 continued to stile oxygen ; a work in which he endeavours to 

 prove that Bayen had all the merit that is usually attributed to 

 Lavoisier and his associates, in the discovery of the gaseous 

 bodies. In the same spirit he afterwards opposed Haiiy's doc- 

 trines on the subject of crystallography ; he endeavoured to 

 show that he was not original in his idea of applying the crystal- 

 line form of bodies to determine their species ; and for the pur- 

 pose, as he supposed, of doing justice to the party that had 

 been defrauded of his literary rights, he republished the Scia- 

 graphia of Bergman. 



Delametherie about this period particularly directed his atten- 

 tion to the study of mineralogy and geology ; and in 1795 pub- 

 lished what is perhaps his best work, or at least that which is 

 the least objectionable, his " Theory of the Earth;" it contains 

 a good view of the best ascertained facts and best established 

 opinions, while there is less of that extravagant speculation 

 which is so profusely scattered over his former productions. A 

 circumstance occurred at this time which caused him a severe 

 disappointment. By the death of Daubenton, the Professorship 

 of Natural History in the College of France became vacant; and 

 Delametherie conceived himself the person most qualified to fill 

 his place, and had some reason to expect the appointment. It 

 was, however, conferred upon Cuvier, a man much his junior, 

 and whose reputation at that time was not so fully established, 

 as to afford an obvious reason for the preference. Delametherie's 

 mortification was, however, alleviated by an arrangement which 

 was afterwards made, according to which he was constituted 

 joint Professor with Cuvier, the departments of geology and 

 mineralogy being placed under his sole superintendano-. As a 

 part of the duties of his office, he now became a public lecturer 

 on mineralogy, an employment which he executed with much 

 zeal, and with considerable success. His class was numerously 

 attended ; and he employed every means to make his Lecture* 



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