£796.} 
emulation, this able man dedicated his 
life to the moft abftrufe parts of the 
fcience. He was very ferviceable to me 
when I publifhed my tables of Mercury, 
and was one of the firft who calcu- 
lated the orbit of the planet Herfchel, 
for which he alfo conftruéted tables. 
The- various orders of friars, hitherto 
ufelefs to .mankind, have an oppor- 
tunity, in thofe countries where they 
are ftill permitted to exift, to be of 
fome little fervice to the world, by fol- 
lowing the noble example of the convent 
of Cremfmunfter. 
Aftronomy has experienced other loffes, 
during the prefent year; in particular, 
we have reafon to regret Bailly, Du Se- 
jour, and Saron. On the i4th Brumaire 
(4th Nov.) died the citizen Flecheux, 
author of an ingenious planif{phere, and 
of a geocylic machine (Machine Géocyh- 
que) for reprefenting the parallelifm of 
the earth’s axis: he was 55 years old. 
On the 21ft Brumaire (11th November) 
perifhed Silvain Bailly, whole cloze I 
have already publifhed. On the 3d - 
vofe (23rd December) Philip Lefne, my 
relation and pupil, died of a difeale 
contracted while ferving his country, 
tm the marfhes of La Vendée. His death 
is a great lofs to aftronomy. Onthe 8th 
aja (25en. aecember) P.M. 1. 
Lebrun fuffered on a public {caffold. 
He lived for fome time at the obfervatory, 
but he foon embarked in other purfuits, 
and rofe to the head of the Foreign de- 
partment. He, however, brought up 
his younger brother, Achilles Tondu, 
to aitronomy; in confequence of which, 
he accompanied. the ambaflador, Choi- 
feul Gouffier, to Conftantinople, and died 
there, in 1787, only 28 years of age, af- 
ter having made a variety of remarks 
extremely ufefulto geographers, refpect- 
ing the country as far as the mouth of 
the canal that communicates with the 
Black Sea. The Turks would not per- 
mit the French to make obfervations at 
Trebifonde, and Sinope; the Englith 
and Ruifians alfo oppofed this plan : be- 
fides this, we about the fame time loft 
the two beft informed muffulmans be- 
longing to the whole empire. One of 
them was the Vifir Halib-Pacha, decol- 
lated) at) Peéenedus: Ele had “formed a 
{chool for the artillery and engineers, 
and caufed our elementary treatifes to be 
tranflated for their inftru€tion. The 
other was the Vice-Admiral Capitana- 
Bey, whofe head was ftruck off in Oc- 
tober, 1787; hesvas in poffeffion of ex- 
cetlent inftruments, and had publithed 
Lalande’s Hiftory of Aftronomy, 1794. 555 
my Abridgement of Aftronomy. in his 
vernacular tongue. Since the death of 
Tondu, M. Jumelin, a phyfician, M. 
hevalier, and M. Racord, a pilot on 
board a French brig, have made a fev 
obfervations at Conftantinople; but in 
order to fix, pretty nearly, the exact 
pofition of the eaftern part of the Black 
Sea, at the fame time with the fouth of 
the Cafpian, citizen Beauchamp has been 
{ent into Perfia, at my fol'citation, and he 
has been appointed conful at Mafcate, in 
Arabia, which will enable him to furnifh 
us with ftill more important materials. 
On the 7th Ventofe (25th February) 
was executed the ci-devant Baron de 
Marivetz, who had been employed in a 
work, called “ La Payfique du Monde,” 
publifhed between 1780 and 1787, in 7 
vols, 4to. His youth was fpent amidft the 
diffipations of a court, and he had not 
applied himfelf to literature until a 
period of life, when old habits are re- 
nounced with great difficulty. Vols. II. 
and If]. are dedicated to aftronomy. 
Citizen Saron, in his 64th year, fell 
alfo a viétim to that tribunal of blood, 
which {pared neither fcience nor virtue. 
His fole crime appears to have been, the 
poffeffion of a large fortune; in addition 
to this, he was formerly firft prefident of 
the late parliament of Paris. He was re- 
ceived into theAcademy, in 1779, and was 
extremely ufefulto us, more efpecially in 
the calculation of comets; all thofe ob- 
ferved for feveral years, were calculated 
by him, and that too, with a moft afto 
nifhing facility. He procured inftruments 
at a great expence, and lent them to 
men of fcience, with an exemplary 
generofity. 
To the other loffes fuftained during a 
tyranny of nine months, I may fairly 
add, that of Lavoifier, who perifhed on 
the rgth Floreal (May 8th) and Wallot, 
who fell on the ninth Termidor (July 
27th). 
We have ailfo to regret M.. Niew.. 
land, of Leyden, who had: compofed an 
interefting work on Nautical Afttonomy, 
which the Dutch ftood in great need of, 
as this branch of fcience is too much 
neglected in their country. He had 
{pent a whole fummer in the grand ob- 
fervatory belonging to M. Zach, at 
Gotha, and we expeéted great things 
from his zeal and fkill. 
The laft misfortune of-this kind, in 
the courfe of 1794, was in the perfon of 
citizen Achilles Peter Dionis du Sejour,. 
of the e-devant Academy of Sciences, 
the Academies of London, Stockholm, 
4 Bz and 

