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LACEPEDE, COMTE DE. 



LACEPEDE, COMTE DE. 



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He was also employed in the calculation of ephemerideg, and in that 

 of eclipses for 1800 years, published in the ' Art de Verifier les Dates.' 

 In 1746 an observatory was constructed for him at his college, and he 

 began observations on a large scale. The transit instrument being 

 then but little used in France [CASSINI], he had no means of judging 

 of its value ; so that with old methods and old instruments he con- 

 tinued hia career for fourteen years. In 1751 he made his celebrated 

 vojage to the Cape of Good Hope, where he remained four years or 

 something less. His object was to form a catalogue of southern stars, 

 and up to the present time his results have been in use. He deter- 

 mined the places of about ten thousand stars, and grouped them in 

 constellations ; measured a degree of the meridian at the Cape, and 

 made a survey of the Mauritius and island of Bourbon. He received 

 for his expenses and those of a clockmaker who accompanied him, all 

 instruments included, 10,000 fran. a; and so accurately did he keep 

 his accounts, that he was able to explain bis expenditure to a sou : it 

 was 9144 francs and five sous, and he insisted on returning the balance 

 in spite of the disinclination of the officers of the treasury to receive 

 it. He returned to Paris in 1754, and occupied himself in the pre- 

 paration of his ' Fundamenta Astronomiae,' for the publication of which 

 he engaged to furnish a bookseller with almanacs for ten years. He 

 now began to use the transit instrument, but with BO much doubt of 

 its accuracy, and consequent repetition of observations, that, according 

 to Delatubre, the secondary stars observed by him at this time were 

 determined with a degree of accuracy superior to that of the funda- 

 mental btars of other observatories. He also published the posthumous 

 works of Bouguer, a email table of logarithms, and various observations. 

 At the end of 1761 he was seized with gout, but he remained during 

 the winter employed in his observatory, passing most nights upon cold 

 stones in the act of observing : a fever was the consequence, and he 

 died March 21, 1762, aged forty-uine years. His last act was the 

 return of the instruments which he had borrowed, and the commission 

 of his manuscripts to his friend MaraldL 



La Caille was an astronomer whose observations will have the 

 highest value as long as astronomy is cultivated, which cannot be said 

 of others, his superiors in originality of discovery. Lalande said of 

 him that he alone had made more observations than all his contempo- 

 raries put together, which Delambre states would be no exaggeration 

 if spoken of the twenty-seven years during which he laboured ; but 

 though his utility was much increased by his extraordinary activity, 

 industry, and honesty, yet his reputation was stiil more indebted to 

 the genius which he displayed in producing exactness out of imperfect 

 instruments. Delambre remarks that the repeating circles of Lenoir 

 and Ktichenbach have not been able to correct the latitude of the 

 Observatory of Paris as determined by La Caille. He also says : 

 " Having been called upon by singular conjunction of circumstances 

 to go over and verify a great part of the labours of La Caille, after 

 having reviewed with the greatest care all his stars, made long 

 researches on refraction, constructed new solar tables, measured the 

 meridian of France, and had in my hands for many years all the 

 manuscripts of La Caille, I never followed him one step of his track 

 without t'eeliug increased admiration and esteem for a savant who will 

 always be the honour of French astronomy." Delambre is, us we have 

 seen, a severe critic in all quarters, aud never shows much, if any, 

 national bias in great questions : an dloge from him is history. 



The writings published by La Caille are as follows: 1745-54, 

 ' Ephemerides ;' 1748, ' Le;ons Ele'mentaires d'Astronomie, G&>m., et 

 Phys.,' reprinted in 1755, 1761, and in 1780, with notes by Lalaude ; 

 translated into English by Robertson, 1750; his first observations for 

 1743 are in the ' Memoirs' of the Academy, which appeared in 1748 ; 

 1750, ' Lemons Ele'mentaires d'Uptique,' a work which maintained its 

 ground a long time, but only for want of a better ; 1750, ' Avis aux 

 Aotronomes,' 4c., a pamphlet recommending the corresponding 

 observations to be made in Europe while he was in the south : 1753, 

 Observations wade at the Cape for Parallax of Moon, Mars, and Venus ; 

 1755-64, ' Kphemerides,' on the model of which, according to Lalande, 

 our 'Nautical Almanack' was constructed; 1757, 'Fuudamenta 

 Astronomiae :' among many other things this contains a catalogue of 

 397 (tars (northern), of which Delambre says that it cost more trouble 

 than any other catalogue ever gave its author ; 1758, 'Tabula; Solares,' 

 the beet up to the time of Delambre and Zacli. But the first work of 

 La Caille (according to Delambre, and omitted by Lalande) was an 

 edition of, or commentary on, the tract of Cotes, entitled ' Estimatio 

 Errorum, &c.,' the first attempt to apply the theory of probabilities 

 to the determination of the most probable mean of observations. 

 La Caille was an astronomer who made his own head supply the 

 deficiencies of his workmen's hands. 



The posthumous works of La Caille were as follows : 1765-74, 

 'Ephemerides,' containing also a catalogue of 515 zodiacal stars; 

 17(53, 'Journal Historique du Voyage fait HU Cap de Bonne Espe'rance;' 

 1763, ' I'celum Australe Stelliferum,' the record of his observations in 

 the southern hemisphere. It contains observations of more than ten 

 thousand stars, with a catalogue of 1942 principal stars, which catalogue 

 is also in the ' Memoirs' of the Academy for 1752. 



LACfiPEDB, HEKNAUD GERMAIN fiflKNNE, DE LA VILLE, 

 COUTH DK, a celebrated French naturalist, was born at Agen, chief 

 town of the department of Lot-et-Uaronne, on the 26th of December 

 17JC. HU father, Jean Joseph Me"dard de la Ville, held a high legal 



appointment (lieutenant-general of the Se'no'chausse'e) at Ageri, and 

 was descended from an ancient aud noble family. Young Lac<5p6de 

 lost his mother at an early age, and from a great resemblance which 

 he bore to her he was doted on by his father, who brought him up at 

 home, aud freely allowed him to cultivate a taste which he showed 

 for reading by letting him have free access to a good library. He thus 

 acquired romantic notions and a generous unsuspicious disposition, 

 which all the changes of a long and eventful life never effaced, and 

 which sometimes led him into error, inducing him to believe impro- 

 bable circumstances rather than doubt the veracity of an author. 

 Among other books, he met with Buffon's ' Histoire Naturelle,' which 

 he read over and over till he knew it by heart, and thus gained a taste 

 for natural history from the works of this fascinating writer, whom he 

 henceforth took for his master and his model. While at home he 

 imbibed a fondness for music, in which science he became a proficient; 

 he also applied himself with ardour to the study of physics and 

 natural philosophy, and formed with some of his young companions a 

 juvenile academy, many members of which became afterwards mem- 

 bers or correspondents of the Institute. Having made some expe- 

 riments on electricity, and collected, as he thought, some important 

 facts and observations, he wrote a memoir on this subject, and sent it 

 to Buffon, who returned him such a flattering answer that on the 

 reception of it he set off immediately for Paris, where Buffon then 

 held the appointment of superintendent of the Jardin-du-Roi. He 

 was at this time about twenty years old, and wished to devote himself 

 entirely to the pursuit of science and music ; but his friends insisted 

 on his following some profession, and accordingly he obtained a coin- 

 mission in the army. He got attached however to a regiment where 

 he had nothing to do, and which he hardly ever saw, though it served 

 for a nominal employment At this time he assiduously cultivated 

 his musical talents, and published an opera for the stage, which, 

 though favourably received at first, was not ultimately successful, 

 and from this time he only followed this study for his private 

 amusement. 



In 1731 he published an essay on natural and artificial electricity, 

 and in 1782 a treatise on physios, entitled ' Physique Ge'ne'rale et 

 Particuliere." These works were full of ingenious hypothesis and 

 clever reasoning, but the theories which they contained were not based 

 on facts, and they did not meet with success. Buffon however, on 

 whose model they were written, was so much pleased with them that 

 IIB became from this time the intimate friend and instructor of 

 Lacdpede, who was now the first aud favourite pupil of Buffou and 

 Uaubeuton. Buffon proposed to him to continue his ' Natural 

 History,' and in 1785 offered him the appointment of curator and 

 sub-demonstrator in the Cabinet du Roi. He gladly left the army 

 aud accepted it, though a laborious situation. He now applied him- 

 self with energy to natural history, and published his ' Histoire 

 Nuturelle des Quadrupedes Ovipares et des Serpents' in 1788-89 ; the 

 last part came out after Buffon's death, which took place in 1788. 

 Cuvier says, " This publication, by its elegance of style, aud the 

 interesting facts it contains, was worthy of the immortal work of 

 which it forms the continuation ; it marks the change of ideas aud 

 progress of science which had taken place during the forty years which 

 had elapsed since the ' Histoire Naturelle ' of Buffon first appeared." 

 M. LacepeJe however had not the antipathy of his master to precise 

 method* and nomenclature; he formed classes, orders, and genera, 

 which he clearly characterised, as well as strictly defined many species; 

 but his arrangement was, like that of Linnaeus, artificial and unphilo- 

 sophical, founded only on external characters, without reference to 

 internal organisation. After the death of Buffon, when France became 

 disturbed by the national convulsions of the revolution, Lacopoda took 

 an active part in political affairs; he was successively invited to fill the 

 posts of president of Paris, commandant of the national guard, aud 

 deputy extraordinary for the town of Ageu in the Legislative Assem- 

 bly of 1791, of which he was elected president. With many others 

 he got out of favour in the following year, aud narrowly escaped 

 destruction during the reign of terror, being obliged to secrete him- 

 self for some time. When the Jardiu-du-Hoi was converted by the 

 Convention into a public school, and named the Museum of Natural 

 History, he returned there, aud in" 1795 a new chair of zoology was 

 created for him, in which he lectured on reptiles and fishes with 

 great success. In 1798 he brought out the first part of his 'Histoire 

 Naturelle des Poiusons,' which Cuvier pronounced to be a very good 

 performance considering the disadvantages under which he laboured 

 in getting specimens, and the imperfect knowledge of the organisation 

 of these animals at that time. In 1804 his 'Histoire Naturelle des 

 Cetace's ' was published, which he correctly estimated as the best of 

 his writings. After this period he wrote no large work, though he 

 contributed numerous memoirs to the ' Annales du Muse'um, 1 the 

 ' Mdinoires de I'Acadeinio des Sciences," and other publications. A 

 great deal of his time was spent in public business. In 1799 he was 

 elected a member of the senate, and was made president in 1801. 

 From 1803 till the Restoration he filled the office of graud chancellor 

 of the Legion of Honour. He was a member of the Institute at the 

 time of its formation, and afterwards of the Academy of Sciences. 

 He died on the Cth of October 1825. Cuvier says that he was always 

 distinguished by excessive politeness and courteousness of manner, 

 with which however he combined great kindness of heart, and that 



