MACQUER, PIERRE JOSEPH, was born at Paris on the 9th of October 1718, and died there on the 16th of February 1784. He was member of the Academy of Sciences, and professor of pharmacy; and was engaged in the Journal de Savans for articles in medicine and chemistry. With the last of these sciences he was intimately acquainted. He had a share in compiling the Pharmacopœia Parisiensis, published in 1758, in 4to. His other works are, 1. Éléments de Chimie Théorique, Paris, 1749, 1753, 12mo; 2. Éléments de Chimie Pratique, 1751, in two vols. 12mo; 3. Plan d'un cours de Chimie Expérimentale et Raisonnée, 1757, 12mo, in the composition of which he was associated with M. Beaumé; 4. Formule Medicamentorum Magistralium, 1763; 5. Art de la Teinture en Soie, 1763; 6. Dictionnaire de Chimie, contenant la Théorie et la Pratique de cet Art, 1766, in two vols. 8vo, which has been translated into German with notes, and into English with notes by Mr Keir. Macquer has, by his labours and writings, greatly contributed to render useful an art which formerly tended only to ruin the health of the patient by foreign remedies, or to reduce the professors of it to beggary, whilst they prosecuted the idle dream of converting every thing into gold.