cipal seats in the county are, Gothurst, the seat of 



t I)r g Wright, Esq. ; f Liscombc House, the seat 

 of Sn .Ion,. t!i. in LOV.M ; Wotton-under-Bcrnwc. <1, 

 scat ->f the Earl ot Temple; Chequers, the seat 

 of Sir John Russel, Bart. ; Chalfont House, the seat 

 of Thomas Hibbert, Esq. ; Shank-Iocs, the seat of 

 T. D. Tyrwhitt Drake, Esq. ; Wycombe Abbey, 

 the seat of Lord Carrington ; Hitchendcn, the seat 

 of the Countess Dowager Conyngham ; Wycombe 

 Park, the seat of Sir Jonn Dashwood, Bart. ; Faw- 

 ley Court, the seat of Strickland Freeman, Esq. ; 

 Dancsfield, the seat of Robert Scott, Esq. ; Harley- 

 ford, the seat of Sir William Clayton ; Hcdsor 

 Lodge, the seat of Lord Boston ; Wilton Park, the 

 seat of James Du Pre, Esq. ; Bulstrode, the seat of 

 the Duke of Portland ; Slope Park, the seat of John 

 Penn, Esq. ; and Taploe House, the seat of the 

 Marquis of Thomond. See Langley's History and 

 Antiquities of the Hundred of Dcsborough, 4to, 1772 ; 

 The Beauties of England and Wales, vol. i. p. 276. ; 

 The General View of the sj%ricuhure of Bucking- 

 hamshire ; Pennant's Tour from Chester to London, 

 1782; Bray's Tour in 1783; and Shaw's Tour in 

 1789. For some account of the strata of Bucking- 

 hamshire, and of the pits of fullers' earth in Waven- 

 don, sec the article BEDFORDSHIRE. (*) 



BUCKLER. See AKMOUR. 



BUCQUET, JOHN BAPTISTE MICHAEL, a cele- 

 brated chemist, was born at Paris on the 18th of 

 February 1746. After distinguishing himself in the 

 course of his education at school, he was sent by his 

 father, who was an advocate, to study the profession 

 of the law. His attention, however, had not been 

 long directed to this subject, when it was attracted 

 to the study of the sciences, and his time was hence- 

 forth devoted to chemistry, medicine, and anatomy. 

 Having attended the lectures of the most celebrated 

 teachers, and spent a great part of his finances in the 

 acquisition of knowledge, he resolved to become a 

 candidate before the faculty of medicine, for a li- 

 cence, free of expense, which is always given to the 

 most deserving at the opening of every session. 

 Though Bucquet was not the successful candidate, 

 yet he never lost sight of the object of his ambition, 

 and, by the assistance of his friends, he was soon 

 enabled to defray all the expence of a regular licence, 

 at the end of which the first place was assigned to 

 him by the faculty. The lectures on chemistry and 

 natural history, which he now began to deliver, were 

 numerously attended. By his eloquence as a public 

 speaker, and the interest which he contrived to 

 throw upon every subject which came under his re- 

 view, he attracted to his lectures all ranks of society* 

 and widely extended his reputation as a philoso- 

 pher. 



In order to assist the students who attended his 

 lectures, he published in 1771, in 2 vols. 12mo, his 

 Introduction a i 'etude des corps naturcls tires du regne 

 mineral; and in 1773 appeared his Introduction a 

 I' etude des corp< tin's du rc>rnc vegelale. 



In the year 1775, Bucquet was appointed to give 



5 B U C 



lectures on Pharmacy, and upon the death of M. B 

 Roux, in 1776, the Faculty of Medicine unanimous- V 

 ly appointed him professor of chemifctry, and his first 

 course of lectures was delivered in 1777. 



Having now the command of a more extensive 

 laboratory, our author directed his attention to hit 

 favourite study ; and the results of his chemical re- 

 searches were read before the Royal Academy of 

 Sciences. His first memoir, entitled, Experience* 

 p/iysico-c/iimitiues sur fair qui te degage det corpt 

 dttns le temp de leur decomposition, &c. was published 

 in the 7th volume of the Memoires des Savant Etran 

 gcrs, and contains a scries of excellent experiments 

 on the proportion and effects of fixed air. By work- 

 ing, however, with two small quantities, he fell into- 

 some mistakes respecting the specific gravity and the 

 acidity of that gas. His second memoir, entitled 

 Memoire sur quelques circonstances qui acccmpagnent 

 la dissolution du set ammoniac par la chaux, &c. was 

 presented to the academy in 1773, and published in the 

 ninth volume of the Memoires des Savant Elrangert t 

 p. 563. In the same volume he has likewise publish- 

 ed Memoires sur pluneurs combinations salines de 

 I'arscnic. The celebrated Duke de la Rochefou- 

 cault and M. Bucquet made a number of joint ex- 

 periments on the analysis of zeolite. They obtained 

 from it a good deal of water, and the residue, formed 

 with vitriolic acid and salt, arranged in small needles, 

 from which they concluded that zeolite is not a vol- 

 canic product, and that it contains a particular earth 

 analogous to magnesia. ( See the Mem. Sav. Elrang. 

 torn, ix.) The attention of M. Bucquet was next 

 directed to the analysis of blood. His memoir upon 

 this subject, which is said to be a model of precision, 

 was read before the academy on the llth of May, 

 but has not yet been given to the public. These 

 researches were followed by a series of experiments, 

 made along with M. de la Planche, on the best me- 

 thod of preparing the different kinds of sether, but 

 particularly the muriatic and the nitrous. The me- 

 moir in which these experiments are detailed, has not 

 yet been printed. 



The talents of M. Bucquet were now joined to those 

 of the celebrated Lavoisier, for the purpose of veri- 

 fying the fundamental experiments of the animal 

 kingdom. These distinguished chemists have set- 

 tled a number of uncertain facts on the progress of 

 heat, and on the nature of acids and gases. They 

 repeated many experiments which required intense 

 heat, and a very complicated apparatus ; and the re- 

 sult of their labours was drawn up in 15 articles, 

 which were presented to the Royal Academy ot" 

 Sciences. 



In the memoirs of the Royal Society for 1776, p. 

 377. M. Bucquet published an analysis of opium, and 

 in the same volume he has given the abridgment of a 

 memoir, which was afterwards published separately in 

 an enlarged form, under the title of Memoire fur le 

 maniere dont Ics Animaux sont qffectcs par differens 

 Jluides aeriformes mephitiqucs et sur les moucns (te rc~ 

 medier aux effets de ccsjiuiucs; precede d'mie histoirc 



+ " I am told," says Mr Pennant, " that the great snail, or Pomatia, is found in the neighbouring woods, which is its. 

 most southern residence in this island. It is of exotic origin, and, according to tradition, waa introduced by Sir Kenelm 

 Digby, aa a medicine lor the use of his lady." 



