Life of Count Rumford. 623 



the sketch there given to be from the pen of Mr. 

 Underwood, previously mentioned as an intimate friend 

 of Rumford. It contains some very interesting par- 

 ticulars, which, as coming from one who evidently was 

 in close relations with the Count during his last years, 

 have a character of authenticity. The portion of this 

 memoir which is biographical, and relates to Rumford's- 

 life before his residence in France, is credited, " with 

 slight alterations, to a contemporary publication." The 

 source of it would seem to be Pictet's contribution to 

 the Bibliotheque Britannique, as it repeats his errors, 

 though it adds some new ones, as, for instance, in 

 the statement that " Rumford lost his wife before he 

 quitted America." We are glad, therefore, to have 

 the editor's voucher when he adds : "We subjoin some 

 interesting memorials of his character and pursuits, 

 communicated by an intimate friend of the Count's, 

 resident in Paris." I extract largely from these. 



" In the summer of 1803 he made a tour of a part of Switzer- 

 land and Bavaria with the widow of the celebrated Lavoisier, a 

 woman of highly cultivated mind and capacious understanding, 

 whom shortly after their return to Paris he married. She 

 possesses a portrait of Count Rumford, which was painted by 

 Girodet, the best painter in France, in 1802. But their union 

 proved unhappy, and they at length separated, the Count 

 retiring to a house at Auteuil, about four miles from Paris 

 (formerly the residence of the celebrated Helvetius, and after- 

 wards of the physician Cabanis), where he passed the rest of his 

 days in philosophical pursuits and experiments, almost secluded 

 from the world. For after the death of his worthy friend, the 

 illustrious Lagrange, he saw only his next-door neighbor, the 

 Senator Leconteux Caneleux ; Mr. Underwood, a member of 

 the Royal Institution, who assisted him in the experiments ; and 

 an old friend, Mr. Parker, a learned American, who possesses a 



