518 MAGNAN, BERNARD P. 



in 1820 entered upon the pastorate of the Second 

 Presbyterian church in Elizabeth. His health 

 failing, he was obliged to spend the -winter of 

 1822 in Georgia, from which change of climate 

 he received much benefit. In 1826, however, he 

 was again obliged to visit Savannah, and with 

 the same happy result. He received calls to 

 two churches in that city, but declined both, 

 and subsequently several others in his own 

 neighborhood and the West ; but his heart 

 could not be drawn from his own people, and 

 he continued to hold the place of his first 

 choice through life. Dr. Magie held several 

 positions of honor and trust ; as trustee of the 

 College of New Jersey, director in the Amer- 

 ican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- 

 sions, director in the American Tract Society, 

 and director in the Theological Seminary at 

 Princeton. In 1842 he received the title of 

 Doctor of Divinity from Amherst College. 



MAGNAN, BEENAED PIEEEE, Marshal of 

 France, born in Paris, October 7, 1791, died at 

 Paris, May 29, 1865. He was educated for the 

 law, but in his eighteenth year he enlisted as a 

 private soldier in the 66th regiment of the line, 

 and in the course of four years' service in the 

 campaigns of Portugal and Spain, gained, by 

 his good conduct and valor, the rank of captain 

 and the cross of the Legion of Honor. He was 

 then transferred to the Imperial Guard, with 

 which he took an active part in the last cam- 

 paign of France, and served at the battle of 

 "Waterloo. He was next, through the influence 

 of Marshal Gourion de St. Cyr, admitted to the 

 Bourbon Royal Guard, serving with distinction 

 in Spain in 1823, where he gained the rank of 

 colonel, and in the expedition against Algiers 

 in 1830, for which he was made commander of 

 the Legion of Honor. In 1831 he was in gar- 

 rison at Moultrison, when he received orders to 

 march on Lyons, where a dispute about wages 

 had caused an insurrection among the work- 

 men. Having reached the gates of the city, in 

 order to avoid effusion of blood he commenced 

 treating with the insurgents; but this course 

 not meeting with the approbation of the Gov- 

 ernment of Louis Philippe, the humane officer 

 was placed on half pay. He then offered his 

 services to the king of the Belgians, who at 

 once appointed him general of brigade, charged 

 him with the investment of Maestricht, and 

 afterwards confided to him the military division 

 of Ghent. In 1839, when there was danger of 

 war with Holland, Gen. Magnan commanded, at 

 the camp of Beverloo, the advanced guard of 

 twenty-five thousand men, being half of the 

 Belgian army. Peace having been signed the 

 same year he quitted Belgium and returned to 

 France with the rank of major-general, to which 

 he had been promoted in 1835. After being 

 stationed for a short time in the Pyr6n6es, he 

 obtained command of a division in the depart- 

 ment of Nord, which he held for seven years, 

 during which time he was repeatedly called on 

 to suppress insurrections among the workmen 

 of Lille and of Roubaix. In 1840, having been 



MAGNESIUM. 



accused of complicity in the attack by Louia 

 Napoleon on Boulogne, he defended himself 

 before the Chamber of Peers. At the time of 

 the revolution in 1848 Gen. Magnan was unem- 

 ployed, and Louis Philippe declined the offer 

 of his services ; he, however, accompanied the 

 Duchess of Orleans and her children to the 

 Chamber of Deputies, when the abdication of 

 the king in favor of his grandson, the Count de 

 Paris, was proposed ; but the project was not 

 listened to, the republic being proclaimed in- 

 stead. Under the new rulers Gen. Magnan 

 commanded the division of the Alps. During 

 the insurrection of June he advanced to the 

 relief of Paris, marching one hundred and 

 twenty leagues in seven days. Subsequently 

 he suppressed a movement hi Lyons, for which 

 service he received the cordon of a grand 

 officer of the Legion of Honor, and was pro- 

 moted to command the division of Strasbourg. 

 While there he was chosen by the electors of 

 the department of the Seine as one of their 

 representatives to the Legislative Assembly, 

 but his military duties on the frontiers pre- 

 vented his taking any active part in the sittings. 

 As coinrnander-in- chief of the army of Paris, a 

 post he had held since 1851, he took a promi- 

 nent part in the covp d'etat of the 2d of De- 

 cember, for which he was rewarded with the 

 Mton of field-marshal, the dignity of senator, 

 and the office of grand huntsman to Napoleon 

 III. 



MAGNESIUM. Brief notices of this metal, 

 its properties and uses, appear under its name 

 in the volume of this CTCLOPJSDIA for 1863, and 

 under the title LIGHT in that for 1864. The 

 continued developments in connection with the 

 subject, and particularly as to the qualities and 

 possible applications of the magnesium light, 

 are such as to warrant a more extended account 

 in this place. 



Preparation of Magnesium : SonstadVs Meth- 

 od. During some years, in which the peculiar 

 properties of this metal and of the light afforded 

 on combustion of it were becoming generally 

 known, the processes of obtaining it remained 

 beset with difficulties and suited only to the 

 laboratory ; and the consequent limited supply 

 and high price prevented the introduction of 

 the metal into general use. M. E. Sonstadt, 

 however, set out to devise a process for prepar- 

 ing magnesium on a manufacturing scale; and 

 it now appears that in this he has entirely suc- 

 ceeded. The first requisite was to obtain eco- 

 nomically the anhydrous chloride of magnesium, 

 free at the same time from ammonium or other 

 prejudicial intermixture. By heating to redness 

 the hydrated chloride of the metal in a dry cur- 

 rent of gaseous chlorhydric acid, a perfectly 

 anhydrous and pure chloride is obtained. This 

 process, however, is tedious. The mother-liquor 

 left after extraction of common salt from sea- 

 water constitutes a convenient source of chlo- 

 ride of magnesium, the only purification required 

 being a precipitation of sulphates present by 

 the chlorides of barium and calcium, and of the 



