J825.] of Claude-Louis Berthollet, 179 



a brief period: but such was the sole comfort he ever afterwards 

 knew, and it too was rare and short-Uved. The only work which 

 he seems to have undertaken subsequent to this period is a 

 memoir on the analysis of vegetable and animal principles, a 

 field of investigation in which he had already distinguished 

 himself, and in which, once more, with his usual profound pene- 

 tration, he anticipated and led the way to the recent discoveries 

 of Gay-Lussac and Theuard, v/ho reduced these complicated 

 combinations to their elements by means of combustion. 



It was in this heart-broken manner that the remaining years 

 of Berthollet were spent. It is indeed an awful lesson to the 

 frailty of human nature to see a happiness the purest that man 

 can ever enjoy, cut at once to the heart's core, to witness the 

 near prospect of the tranquil close of so long a life, which in 

 every vicissitude had been adorned by honour and integrity, and 

 in many a period gloriously illuminated by fame, in one awful 

 moment broken up and clouded for ever. From the day that 

 his son died, no smile ever passed over his features; his air, once 

 so sprightly and cheerful, remained sombre and gloomy ; and 

 often tlie unbidden tear forced itself down his aged cheek. 

 Death seemed no longer an evil, as life seemed to separate him 

 from his child. And in a few years, that stern but sure comforter 

 reached the melancholy Berthollet. 



His end was worthy of the manner in which he had lived. A 

 fever, apparently slight, left behind it a number of boils, which 

 were soon followed by a gangrenous ulcer of uncommon size. 

 Under these he suffered for several months with the greatest 

 constancy and fortitude. His complaint was of that desperate 

 nature which medicine cannot cure. He himself, as a physician, 

 knew the extent of his danger, felt the inevitable progress of the 

 malady, and steadfastly but calmly regarded the slow advance 

 of death. Durinu' all this time, his mental suffering, and the 

 loss of his son, engrossed him more than his bodily pain. At 

 length, after a tedious period of sufi^ering, in which his equani- 

 mity had never once been shaken, Berthollet died on the 6th of 

 November, 1822, at the advanced age of 74 years. He has left 

 the faithful partner of his joys and griefs, to mourn his loss in 

 desolate, childless widowhood. 



The robust constitution of Berthollet had led his friends at 

 one time to anticipate for him a much longer life. But the 

 weight of grief which latterly oppressed him gave a fearful 

 strength to the disease that invaded him, and these together 

 seemed to cut him off' ere his full time had yet arrived. Since 

 the death of his friend Monge, and the illustrious La Grange, the 

 sciences in Fiance have not sustained so severe a loss. One of 

 the founders, and always one of the best supporters and elucida- 

 tors of modern chemistry, save only the gloom of his latter years, 



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