24 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[January, 



witlt wliicli it \% furnishcil, was augmented, on his rcconinieiulation, li} a new 

 transit and circle, so as to lit it for tlie most refined purposes of modern prac- 

 tical astronom)" : and we venlurc to e:^i)ress a hope that it will sliorlly I)ecojne 

 eipially etiicient and useful with the similar establishment which exists in the 

 sister university. Professor lligaud j)nblishcd in 18.S1, the miscellaneous 

 works and correspondence of UratUey, to which he afterwards added a very 

 interesting gnpplement on the astronomical ])a])ers of Harriott. In 1838, he 

 ]>ublished some curious notices of the tirst jiuhlieation of the Principia of 

 Newton ; and he had also projected a I,ife of llalley, with a view of resening 

 the memory of that great man from much of the ohloipiy to which it has hecn 

 exposed ; he had made extensive collections for a new edition of the mathc- 

 uintical collections of Pappus : and he was the author of many valuable coni- 

 innnications to the Transactions of the Royal Astronomical Society, and to 

 other scienlifie journals, on various sulijecis connected with physical and as- 

 tronomical science. There was probably no other person of his age who was 

 equally learned on all subjects connected with the history and literature of 

 astronomy, lie die-i in London in March last, after a short but jiainful ill- 

 ness, which he bore with a fortitude and resignation which might have been 

 expected from his gentle, patient, and truly Christian cliaraetcr. 



Mr. Wii.kins, Professor of Architecture to the Koval Academy — (see 

 Journal, Vol. II. page 388.) 



The Kev. AiiCHiHAi.D Alison, senior llinislcr of St. Paul's Chapel, Edin- 

 burgh, was born in 1757, became a member of the University of (ilasgow in 

 1772, and of Baliol College, Oxford, in l"7.i, and the degree of B.C.L. in 

 1784 : he soon afterwards took holy orders in the English Church, and was 

 presented to several ecclesiastical preferments by Sir William Pulteney, Lord 

 Chancellor Loughborough, and Uisbop Douglas of Salisbury. In 1784 he 

 maiTicd the daughter of the celebrated Ur. John Gregory of Edinburgh, with 

 whom be lived in uninterruiited happiness for forty years of bis life. In 

 1814, he published two volumes of sermons ; and at a later jieriod, a very 

 interesting memoir of his accomplisheil friend the Hon. Fraser Tytler Lord 

 AVoodhousIce. Mr. Alison was a man of very pleasing and refined manners, 

 of great cheerfulness and equanimity of temper, of a clear and temperate 

 judgment, and possessing a very extensive knowledge of mankind. He was 

 habitually pious and bumble-minded, exhibiting, in the whole tenor of his 

 life, the blessed inlluencc of tliat Gospel of which he was the ordained minis- 

 ter. All his writings are characterized by that jjure and correct taste, the 

 princijiles of wliich be had illustrated with so much elegance and beauty. 



Ed.viuni) Law Lisiiisgton was born in l/liG. at the lodge of St. Peter's 

 College, Cambridge, of which his grandfather. Bishop Law, was master. He 

 became a student, and afterwards a fellow of Queen's College in that Univer- 

 sity, and attained the fourth place on tlic mathematical tripos in 1787. After 

 practising for some years at the bar, he was appointed Cliief Justice of Cey- 

 lon, a station which be filled for several years with great advantage to that 

 colony, (^n his return from the East, he was made .Auditor of the Exche- 

 (juer, and also received from his uncle Lord Ellenborough the appointment of 

 Master of the Crown Olticc. He was an intimate friend of WoUastou ami 

 Tennant ; and tbo\igb willidrawn by his jmrsuits from the active cultivation 

 of science, he continued throughoul his life to feel a deep interest in its pro- 

 gress. His acquaintance wiili classical and general lilcrature was unusually 

 extensive and varied, and he had the happiness of witnessing in his sons the 

 successful culiivation of those studies wliich other and more absorbing duties 

 had compelled him to abandon. Mr. Lushington "was a man of a cheerful 

 temper, of very courteous and ])lcasing manncis, tenijierate and tolerant in all 

 his opinions, and exemplary in the discharge both of his public and private 

 duties : few persons have ever been more sincerely beloved either by their 

 friends or by the members of their families. 



Mil. Gkorgk Saunders was formerly architect to the British Museum, 

 where lie built the Tow nley Gallery ; be was a diligent and learned antiquary, 

 and the author of a very interesting and valualde )iaper in the twenty-sixth 

 volume of the Archa:ologia, containing the results of an inquiry concerning 

 the condition and extent of the city of Westminster at various periods of our 

 bistoiy. 



The only foreign members whom the Royal Society has lost during the last 

 year are the Baron de Prony, one of the most distinguished engineers and 

 niatheniaticians of the age ; and the venerable Pierre Prevost, formerly Pro- 

 fessor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Geneva. 



Gaspabu Ci.air Frax<,'ois Marie Kichi; dr Puonv, was born in the de- 

 partment of the Rhone, in 1755, and became a pu])il at an early age, of the 

 ficole des Pouts et Chaussces, where he pursued his mathematical and other 

 studies with great application, and with more than common success. He was 

 subsequently employed as an adjunct of -M. Perronet, the chief of that school, 

 in many important works, and particularly in the restoration of the Port of 

 Dunkirk ; and in 1 780, he drew up the engineering plan for the erection of 

 the Pont Louis XVL, and was employed in superintending its execution. 

 M. de Proiiy had already a|ipcarcd before the public, first astbc translator of 

 General Hoy's ■' .\ccouiit of the Methods employed for the Measurement of 

 the Base on Hounslow Heath," which was the basis of the most considerable 

 geodesical o]icration which had at that time been undert.aken ; and subse- 

 quently as the author of an essay of considerable merit, " On the Construc- 

 tion of Intermediate Equations of the Second Degree," In 1790 and 1707, 

 ajipcared his great woi'k in two large volumes, entitled Wotivcllc Architect iire 

 JlydratUitjiie, which is a very complete and systematic treatise on Mechanics, 

 Hydrostatics and Hydraulics, and more particularly on the principles of the 

 steam-engine and hydravilical engineering. In 1 792 he was appointed to su- 



perintend the Cadastre or great territorial and ninnerical survey of Trance — a 

 gigantic undertaking, the subsequent execution of which, during the revolu- 

 tionary government, coinbincd with the establishment of the bases of the de- 

 cimal metrical system, gave employment and developemcnt to so many a. id 

 such important scientific labours ami discoveries ; among many other labo- 

 rious duties the formation of the extensive tables devolved upon M. de Prony, 

 who, in the course of two years organized and instructed a numerous body of 

 calculators, and completed the inuiicnse Tattles dii Cndaxtrc, which are still 

 jireserved in MSS. at the librarv of the Observatory in seventeen enormous 

 foUo volumes. M. de Prony became Directenr-Gcneral des Fonts et Chans- 

 sees in 1704, and was nominated the first Professor of Mechanics to the Ecole 

 Polytcchnique — an appointment wliich led to the publication of many very 

 important memoirs on mechanical and bydraulical subjects, and on various 

 problems of engineering, wliich apiie.ared in the Journal of that celebrated 

 school. lie declined the invitation of -Napoleon to become a member of the 

 Institute of Eg)'pt — a refusal which was never entirely forgotten or par- 

 doned. In the beginning of the present century he was engaged in execution 

 of very extensive works connected with the embankments towards the em- 

 bouchure of the Po, and in the ports of Genoa, Aneona, Pola, Venice, and the 

 Gulf of .Spezzia ; and in 1810, he was appointed in conjunction with the ce- 

 lebrated Count Fossombroni, of Florence, the bead of the Commissiotw de 

 V A(jro Rnniano. for the more eft'cctual drainage and improvement of the Pon- 

 tine Mashes. The result of his labours in this very important task, which he 

 prosecuted with extraordinary zeal and success, was embodied in his Des- 

 crijition Ifydro(/raplii(jiie et UistorUjue des Marnis Ponthis, which appeared 

 in 1822, which contains a very detailed description of the past, present and 

 prospective conditions of tliese pestilential regions, and a very elaborate sci- 

 entific discussion of the general principles which should guide us, in this 

 and all similar cases, in etl'ccting their permanent restoration to healthiness 

 and fertdity. After the return of the Bourbons, M. de Prony continued to 

 be employed in various im]iortant works, and more particularly in the forma- 

 tion of some extensive embankments towards the mouth of the Rhone. In 

 181 7 be was made a member of the liurenv des Lmiyitudes, and in the follow- 

 ing year he was elected one of the fifty foreign members of the Royal Soci- 

 ety : in 1828 he was created a Baron by Charles X., and was made a peer of 

 France in 1835. He died in great tranquillity at Aonieres, near Paris, in 

 July last, in the 84th year of bis age. The Baron de Prony was a man of sin- 

 gularly pleasing manners, of very lively conversation, and great evenness of 

 temper. He was one of the most voluminous writers of bis age, generally 

 upon mathematical and other subjects connected with his ]irofessional pur- 

 suits; and though we should not be justified in placing him on the same 

 level with some of the great men with whom be was associated for so many 

 years of bis life, yet he is one of those of whom bis country may be justly 

 proud, whether v\e consider the extent and character of his scientific attain- 

 ments, or the great variety of important practical and useful labours in which 

 his life was sjient. 



Pierre Prkvost was born in 1751, and was originally destined to follow 

 the profession of his father, who was one of the pastors of Geneva. .\t the 

 age of twenty, however, he abandoned the study of theology for that of law, 

 the steady pursuit of which, in time, gave way to his ardent passion for li- 

 terature and philosophy : at tlic age of twenty-two he became private tutor 

 in a Dutch family, and afterwards accepted a similar situation in the family 

 of M. Delescrt, first at Lyons, and afterwards at Paris. It was in this latter 

 city that he commenced the pubheatiou of his translation of Euripides, be- 

 ginning with the tragedy of Orestes — a work which made him advantageously 

 known to some of the leading men in that great metropolis of literatiu-e, and 

 led to his appointment, in 1780, to the professorship of philosophy in the 

 college of Nobles, and also to a place in the Academy of Berlin, on the invi- 

 tation of Frederick the Great. Being thus established in a pesition where 

 the cultivation of literature and jihilosopby became as much a professional 

 duty as the natural aecomplisliiuent of his own wishes and tastes, be com- 

 menced a life of more than ordinary' literary activity and productiveness. 

 He died on the 8th of April, in the 88th year of his age, surrounded by his 

 family, and deeply regretted by all who knew him. 



Use of Varnish of Dextri.ne in the Fine Arts. — In the sitting of 

 the Academy of Sciences, Monday, 26tli August, Baron De Silvestre made 

 the following remarks on the occasion of M. .\r.igo'5 communication on the 

 preservation of photographic images. He observed that it would be inte- 

 resting to try dextrine for this purpose, as he himself, for more than two 

 years, bail successfully used this sulistanee for varnishing pictures newly 

 painted in oil, water colour drawing, coloured lithographs, .and for the per- 

 manent fix.ation of pencil dr.awiiigs. He had also obtained from dextrine a 

 glue, which he found superseded with .iilvantages all other gluey substances, 

 and particularly mouth glue. In these difl'erent iipplications dextrine is 

 mixed with water in different iiroportions ; two jiarts to six of water for vai-- 

 nisb, and in equal parts for glue. He observed that he always added one 

 part of alcohol in the composition of the varnish, and half a part in that of 

 the glue. The mixture should be .always filtered before being used for var- 

 nishing pictures and fixing drawings, and in this latter case, a tine wet muslin 

 should be s)n-ead over the drawing, before covering it with the mixture of 

 filtered dextrine. The description of these jirocesscs, and of the results 

 obtained, is given in the Bvllelin de la Societe d' EnQOuragement pour I'Jiidus- 

 tr'w Nalionale, for the 2nd of August, 1837. 



