NOL 



NOL 



"A verdict, and is stronger against the 

 piuintiii than a nonsuit, which is only a 

 default in appearance ; but this is a vo- 

 luntary acknowledgment that he has no 

 cause of action. In criminal cases it can 

 only be entered by the Attorney Gene- 

 ral. 



NOLLET (JOHN ANTHONY), in biogra- 

 phy, a French ecclesiastic and celebrat- 

 ed" natural philosopher in the eighteenth 

 century, was born at Pinipre, in the dio- 

 cese of Noyon, in the year 1700. His 

 parents, who were persons of reputable 

 character, though of humble fortunes, as 

 they could not make him wealthy, deter- 

 mined to bestow on him the advantages of 

 a good education. With this view they 

 sent him to the college of Clermont in 

 the Beauvoisin, and afterwards to Beau- 

 vais, where he laid a good foundation of 

 grammar learning, which encouraged 

 them to send him to Paris, in order to go 

 through a course of philosophy at that 

 universit}". It was their wish that he 

 should embrace the ecclesiastical profes- 

 sion, and young Noliet adopted without 

 repugnance the choice which they made 

 for him. From a very early age he had 

 shev. a a taste for the study of natural 

 philosophy, which had not yet become 

 his ruling passion ; he was, therefore, 

 enabled to check himself in a pursuit 

 which was likely to interfere with the 

 studies more appropriate to his destined 

 character, and gave himself up entirely 

 to the study of scholastic theology. Hav- 

 ing completed his academical course, 

 and passed with reputation through the 

 usual examinations, in 1728 he was admit- 

 ted to deacon's orders, and soon became 

 a licensed preacher. This new occupa- 

 tion, however, did not wholly divert his 

 attention from the subjects of his early 

 inquiries, and they insensibly claimed 

 more and more of his time. At length 

 his inclination for the sciences became ir- 

 resistible, and he gave himself up to the 

 study of natural philosophy, with an ar- 

 dour to which the kind of privation in 

 which he had so long lived gave augment- 

 ed force. It was now his good fortune to 

 become known to M. du Fay and M. 

 Reaumur, and under their instructions 

 his talents were rapidly developed. By 

 the former he was received as an associate 

 in his electrical researches ; and the lat- 

 ter resigned to him his laboratory. He 

 was also received into a Society of Arts, 

 established at Paris under the protection 

 of the Count de Clermont. In the year 

 1734, he accompanied M. M. du Fay, du 

 Hamel, and de Jussieu, on a visit to Eng- 

 land, where he had the honour of being 



admitted a foreign member of the Royal 

 Society, and he profited so well of this 

 visit, as to institute a friendly and literary 

 correspondence with some of the most 

 celebrated men in this country. Two 

 years afterwards he made a tour to Hol- 

 land, where he formed an intimate con- 

 nection with s'Gravesande and Musschen- 

 broek. Upon his return to Paris, he re- 

 sumed a course of experimental philoso- 

 phy, which he commenced in 1735, and 

 which he continued to the year 1760. 

 These courses of experimental physics 

 gave rise to the adoption of similar plans in 

 other branches of science, such as che- 

 mistry, anatomy, natural history, &c. 



In the year 1738, the Count de Maure- 

 pas prevailed upon Cardinal Fleury to es- 

 tablish a public professorship of experi- 

 mental philosophy at Paris, and the Abbe 

 Nollet \vas tiie first person who received 

 that appointment. During the follow- 

 ing year, the Royal Academy of Sciences 

 appointed him adjunct mechanician to 

 that body ; and in 1742 he was admitted 

 an associate. In the year 1739, the King 

 of Sardinia being desirous of establishing 

 a professorship of physics at Turin, gave 

 an invitation to the Abbe Nollet to per- 

 form a course of experimental philoso- 

 phy before the royal family, with which 

 he complied. From Turin he took a 

 tour to Italy, where he collected some 

 good observations concerning the natural 

 history of the country. In the year 1744, 

 he had the honour of being called to Ver- 

 sailles, to give lessons in naturul philoso- 

 phy to tiie Dauphin, at which the King* 

 and royal family were frequently present. 

 By the excellence and amiableness of his 

 personal character, as well as by his sci- 

 entific talents, he recommended himself 

 to the confidence of his illustrious pupil* 

 who continued as long as he lived to ex- 

 press the greatest esteem for our philoso- 

 pher. It is to be lamented that his libe- 

 rality did not prompt him to better the 

 mediocrity of his tutor's fortune. In the 

 year 1749, the Abbe Nollet took a second 

 journey into Italy, whence wonderful ac- 

 counts had been circulated throughout 

 Europe, of the communication of medi- 

 cinal virtues by electricity, which seem- 

 ed to be supported by numerous well- 

 attested facts. To examine into these 

 facts, and to be assured of their truth or 

 fallacy, was one grand motive with our 

 author in passing the Alps at this timc y 

 and in visiting the gentlemen who had 

 published any accounts of those experi- 

 ments. But though he engaged them to 

 repeat their experiments in his presence, 

 and upon himself, and though he made 



