ANNALS 



OF 



PHILOSOPHY. 



JANUARY, 1825. 



Article I. 



On the Llje and Writings of Claude-Louis BerthoUet. 

 By Mr. Hugh Colquhoun. 



There are some men whose characters combine those estima- 

 ble qualities which render them the delight of their friends, with 

 those splendid talents which destine them to form an era in that 

 branch of study to which they devote themselves, — men, whose 

 memories should live from age to age endeared to the cultivators 

 of science, a generous incitement to their ardour as students, and 

 a bright example to their conduct as philosophers. Such a 

 friend, and such a man of genius, was the subject of this memoir; 

 nor needs there much of prophecy to pronounce that such also 

 shall long be the hallowed memory of Claude-Louis BerthoUet. 



He was a man, whose thirst after science was strong in his 

 earliest youth, and remained unabated during the extended period 

 of a busy half century. In all this time, neither the perplexing 

 subversion of the old system of his favourite study could damp 

 his zeal, nor the revolution in the government of his country 

 withdraw his attention from the constant pursuit of chemistry. 

 And it surely yields one a pleasure of no ordinary kind to reflect, 

 that during "the frightful tempests which agitated the political 

 world throughout the hfe of this child of science, we find the 

 sphere of his pursuits to have been placed beyond the reach of 

 the storm ; nor can a greater contrast be imagined than the even 

 tenour of his useful life presents to all the baneful changes and 

 desolating wars that meantime oppressed his country and the 

 world. 



During the long life vfrhich BerthoUet thus devoted to science, 

 he is uniformly found with a pure and disinterested ardour of 

 research, pressing on from discovery to discovery, and using 

 each new step that he gained, as an instrument of farther and 

 more powerful research into the hidden relations of nature. 

 Independent in his opinions, he frequently stands alone in 

 doubting, or at least in qualifying the most prevalent dogaaas of 



New oeriesy vol. ix. b 



