1C2 Biographical Account of [March, 



An eager desire to visit the raost interesting parts of Europe in- 

 duced him, after he had completed his university education, to 

 undertake a journey t!i rough Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and part 

 of England. He formed the resolution to travel on foot, partly 

 from motives of economy, and partly because he thought that the 

 exercise would contribute to the re-establishment of his health. He 

 returned to St. Petersburg in 1784, quite a new man. He was soon 

 after apjwinted superinteudant of the laboratory belonging to the 

 Imperial Apothecary's Hall ; and, in this situation, his talent for 

 experimenting speedily developed itself. Some interesting disco- 

 veries in pharmaceutic chemistry, the forerunners of those which 

 afterwards rendered his name so celebrated, having been made 

 known to the academy, he was received in 1787 among the 

 number of Correspondents, a distinction which was speedilj 

 followed by a pension. He was admitted into the number of Ad- 

 Jkincts in 1790, and was named an ordinary academician for che- 

 mistry in 1793. 



The number and impoiiance of his discoveries having given ce- 

 lebrity to his name, various academies and learned societies en- 

 rolled him in the lists of their members. The Russian govern- 

 ment endowed him with honorary distinctions and civil advance- 

 ments. He passed rapidly from the situation of counsellor of the 

 court and counsellor of the college, to that of counsellor of state ; 

 and in 1801 he was decorated with the second class of the order of 

 St. Anne. 



Afflicted by the tape worm, and deprived during the last 

 years of the use of his left hand, in consequence of the fall of the 

 glass-covering of his mineral cabinet, which had cut the tendons 

 and nerves of his fore-arm, his life became irksome and disagree- 

 able. The only enjoyment that he ever possessed was derived from 

 his chemical discoveries. His uprightness, his sweetness of temper, 

 his knowledge and his misfortunes, naturally drew the interest of all 

 his acquaintance. His successful labours will cause his name to be 

 long cherished by all the friends of science, and particularly by the 

 academy, of which he was one of the greatest ornaments. 



APPENDIX BY THE EDITOR. 



I have thought it worth while to translate the preceding short 

 biographical notice of Lowitz, on account of his great merit as a 

 chemist, and the celebrity which he acquired. To give ihe reader 

 son.e idea of his scientific labours, 1 shall subjoin a list of such of 

 his dissertations as I have had an opportunity of seeing. Consider- 

 ing the nature of the warfare in which this country has been en- 

 gaged during the greatest part of his career, and our diminished 

 intercourse with the continent, during a considerable part of it, I 



