ANNALS 
OF 
PHILOSOPHY. 
JUNE, 1817. 
Articie I. 
Biographical Account of Hippolyte-Victor Collet-Descotils, Chief 
Engineer and Professor of Chemistry to the Royal Company of 
Mines ; Member of the Institute of Egypt, of the Philomatique 
Society, of Arcuetl, and of Encouragement; Correspondent of 
the Academy of Sciences and Arts at Munich; Associate of the 
Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres of Caen, and Non-resi- 
dent Member of the Agricultural Society of the same City. By 
M. Gay-Lussac.* 
THE sciences have suffered a loss by the death of Collet- 
Descotils which cannot easily be repaired. A premature death has 
snatched him away in the midst of his career, after a degree of 
success which does him honour ; but before he was able to accom- 
plish every thing that was to be expected from his talents and his 
zeal for the sciences. Connected with him as we were by the 
closest intimacy, we consider it as our duty to offer a tribute to his 
memory. It will be impossible to console his friends and his family 
for his loss. While his labours, by recalling hopes that have been 
disappointed, will occasion regrets that will not be soon forgotten. 
Collet-Descotils was born at Caen, Nov. 21, 1773. He began 
and finished his studies at the College du Bois, in the University 
of that city, under the direction of his paternal uncle. His 
father, a well-informed advocate, and First Secretary de l’intend- 
ance de Potiers, conducted him to Paris at the beginning of the re- 
volution. There he had as his chemical teacher M. Vauquelin, then 
Professor at the Atheneum; and M. Charles was his instructor in 
physics. M. Vauquelin took notice of him, and inspired him with 
* Translated from the Ann, de Chim, et Phys, iv, 213, February, 1817, 
Vor. IX, N° VI. ep 
