Baron Louis Bernard, a celebrated chemist, and an advocate of great eminence, was the son of Antoine Guyton de Morveau and Marguerite de Saule his wife, and was born at Dijon, Jan. 4, 1737.

His father was of a respectable family, and filled the situation of professor of the civil law in the University of Dijon. He was fond of building; and from the artificers who were frequently employed about his house, young Guyton appears to have derived, almost in his infancy, a taste for mechanical pursuits, which led to an astonishing development of premature talent. For when he was only seven years old, he prevailed on his father to purchase, for his amusement, a clock which was greatly out of repair, and, as is said, he actually put it together and remedied its defects, without any assistance, so effectually, that it continued to go extremely well for fifty or sixty years afterwards. The next year he was equally successful in cleaning and repairing a watch belonging to his mother. His education was conducted in the ordinary manner at a provincial school or college, which he left at sixteen. Upon his return home he applied, for a short time, to botany, and he was soon afterwards admitted as a student of law in the University of Dijon, where he remained for three years, and then removed to Paris, in order to continue his studies at the bar. In 1756, he paid a visit to Voltaire at Ferney; and he seems to have imbibed from this personage a taste for satirical poetry, which he soon afterwards displayed, upon the occurrence of a trifling accident, in a ceremony relating to a popular Jesuit of the day. Amongst his posthumous papers, he also left some unfinished sketches of tragedies, which are said not to have been deficient in poetical merit.

At the age of twenty-four, when he had made some progress in the practice of his profession as an advocate, his father procured for him, at the price of 40,000 francs, the appointment of advocate-general of the parliament at Dijon, so that he had no further solicitude for the acquisition of an income adequate to his competent subsistence. His health was then considered as delicate; but the fears which were entertained for it proved to be completely groundless.

In January 1764, he was made an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences at Dijon, then lately established under the patronage of the Prince of Condé. This occurrence seems to have had considerable influence on the pursuits which occupied his leisure hours; and he soon became by far the most distinguished ornament of the academy which had paid him this compliment. His particular application to chemistry arose in a great measure out of an accidental emulation with Dr Chardenon, who afterwards very liberally undertook to assist him in the cultivation of this branch of science. He studied the works of Macquer and of Beaumé, and he was furnished by the latter with the materials necessary for the establishment of a small laboratory for his own use.

With regard to the more general cultivation of literature and science, he displayed considerable talent in a memoir on public instruction, together with a plan for a college, which he presented to the parliament of Burgundy, insisting, with great force and success, in opposition to Diderot, on the importance of early education in modelling the character of the human mind. About the same time he also wrote a prize essay, an Encomium on Charles V. of France, surnamed the Wise, which was afterwards inserted in the collection of his Discourses, published in three volumes.

In July 1767 he visited Paris with a view to the advancement of his scientific pursuits, and excited the admiration of the most celebrated chemists of the day, by the facility which he had acquired in the manipulation of his experiments. He entered, after his return, into the investigation of the great question respecting the oxidation of metals, though he did not succeed in removing the difficulties which then embarrassed it. In 1769, he pronounced, at the opening of the parliament, an elegant oration upon morals. He was soon afterwards engaged in some experiments respecting the communication of heat to different substances, the results of which, though not published, were of some importance to the theory of temperature. At the request of Guyton de Morveau.

In the year 1773 he was employed in an interesting investigation of the mutual adhesion of the surfaces of solids and fluids, a class of phenomena of which the mathematical theory was never at all understood, until the publication of an essay on the Cohesion of Fluids in the Philosophical Transactions, soon after the beginning of this century, in which the laws of capillary action are extended to a complete analogy with all the experiments of M. de Morveau, as well as those of Taylor and Achard of a similar nature. He succeeded, about the same time, in discovering a mode of destroying the contagious vapours of pestilential diseases, by fumigation with the muriatic acid gas; he afterwards found the oxymuriatic acid, or pure chlorine, still more effectual; and it does not appear that the nitric acid, since proposed in England, has any advantages over either of these substances.

M. de Morveau's anxious desire to co-operate in the promotion of chemical knowledge induced him to make a new exertion in its favour, by undertaking, in 1776, to deliver a public and gratuitous course of lectures as a regular professor of the science, authorized by the approbation and encouragement of his brother magistrates at Dijon. He soon afterwards wrote some essays on the peculiar characters of carbonic acid; and he strenuously combated the popular prejudice which prevailed against the introduction of conductors for preserving buildings from lightning. He established a large manufactory of nitre, which was afterwards conducted by M. Courtois, the father of the famous discoverer of iodine. From chemistry he naturally diverged into the study of mineralogy; in 1777 he made a tour through the province of Burgundy, with a view to the examination of all its productions; and he actually discovered a rich lead mine, though, for want of coal, it was impossible to derive much benefit from it. He also found a white variety of the emerald in the same province, as well as some combinations of baryta, and he invented a new method of obtaining the pure baryta from its sulphate.

He had long been intimately acquainted with the Count de Buffon and with Malesherbes, both persons distinguished by elegance of taste, the one in science, the other in general literature. In 1779 and 1780 he enlarged his connections among the men of letters resident at Paris; and he was induced by Panckoucke, the bookseller, to undertake the chemical department of the Encyclopédie Méthodique; but it was six years before the Dictionary of Chemistry appeared; the articles relating to pharmacy and metallurgy were supplied by Maret and Duhamel. In the progress of this work he found himself compelled to disbelieve the existence of phlogiston as a distinct principle of inflammability, though at the beginning he had defended the doctrines of the old school. But he soon became one of the most zealous advocates of the new theory; and he contributed very much to its general introduction by the active part which he took in the arrangement of a new nomenclature. His proposals were at first thought objectionable by many of the members of the Academy of Sciences; but they soon became generally adopted throughout Europe; and the system was without doubt of great use for a time, as far as it assisted the memory and the imagination in retaining the discoveries and comprehending the theories which had so much of novelty to make them interesting. Among the original matter contained in the Dictionary, were some researches on the nature of steel, which coincided in their results with those of Monge, Vandermonde, and Berthollet, made about the same time, but published somewhat earlier.

The whole volume was received in the most flattering manner by all the lovers of chemistry; but it was not till 1791 that the author's ambition was gratified by the award of the Academy of Sciences, adjudging him a prize of 2000 francs, which had been allotted to the most useful work which should appear in the course of the year. The prize, however, he begged to offer to the exigencies of the state, which were then very urgent. The Dictionary was afterwards ably continued by M. de Fourcroy.

In the meantime he condescended to appear as the translator of the Opuscula of Bergman, which he illustrated by notes. The example was followed by Madame Picardet, and by others of his friends, who were zealous for the promotion of science; so that the French chemists were by these means speedily made acquainted with the labours of all their contemporaries in different parts of the world. In the year 1787 M. de Morveau applied his speculations to a practical purpose, in establishing a manufactory of soda from common salt, exposed to the atmosphere, with a large proportion of lime, the soda slowly efflorescing as a carbonate. It was in the same year that, having published his Collection of Pleadings, he finally resigned his office at the bar, in order that the whole of his time might be devoted to the pursuit of science.

His next undertaking was of a more adventurous nature; for, in April 1784, he ascended with the President de Virly in a balloon; and he repeated the experiment in the month of June, hoping to be able to direct his aerial course at pleasure. The balloon appears to have been about 30 feet in diameter; and, when we consider the action of the wind upon a surface of such extent, we must be aware that every attempt to oppose or modify it must have been perfectly futile. He was visited soon afterwards by the ingenious and lamented Mr Tennant, who went to Dijon purposely to become acquainted with him, and who had an opportunity of performing some original experiments in his laboratory. He was made a member of the Royal Academy of Medicine at Paris in 1786, as a compliment to the merits of his labours for the preservation of the public health. He received a visit, in the succeeding year, at once from Lavoisier, Berthollet, and Fourcroy, together with Monge and Vandermonde; and our countryman, Dr Beddoes, who was then travelling in France, had the good fortune to join this interesting party, all of them deeply engaged in the discussion of the great chemical questions which were then undecided. In April 1788, M. de Morveau was placed on the list of the foreign members of the Royal Society of London; and the same mark of respect was also paid him at different times by almost all the scientific societies of Europe.

In September 1791 he was unfortunately elected a member of the Legislative Body; and having also been made solicitor-general of his department, he could no longer continue the chemical lectures which he had delivered without intermission for fifteen years, and he resigned his chair to Dr Chausier. It must not be omitted by an impartial biographer, that, on the 16th of January 1793, he thought himself compelled to vote with the majority, for the death of the king; and it is a poor compensation for this fatal error that, in the same year, he resigned a pension of two thousand francs a year, in favour of that republic to which he had already sacrificed the best feelings of humanity. He afterwards became a commissary of the assembly and was attached to the army of the Netherlands. In this capacity, besides many other instances of personal courage, he is said to have rendered essential service to his countrymen, by the construction of a balloon, in which he ascended, together with some of the staff of General Jourdan, in order to observe the motions of the enemy during the battle of Fleurus. After his return to Paris he was appointed professor of chemistry in the Ecole Polytechnique, and he was an effective co-operator in the first establishment of that useful in- Guyton de Morveau.

In 1795 he was again chosen a member of the Council of Five Hundred; and he was appointed by the government one of the forty-eight members of the National Institute, then recently embodied. He had for some time been a correspondent, but was never a member, of the Academy of Sciences. His political engagements terminated in 1797, when he resolved once more to devote himself exclusively to science. In 1798, he fulfilled the duties of director of the École Polytechnique during the absence of Monge, who was in Egypt, and for whom he insisted that the salary should be reserved. The following year, Bonaparte, then first consul, made him a general administrator of the mint. He received the cross of the Legion of Honour in 1803, and obtained, two years afterwards, still higher rank in the order, particularly as an acknowledgment for the public benefits which had been derived from his methods of fumigation. In 1811 he was elevated to the dignity of a baron of the French empire.

From 1798 to 1813, he continued his labours as professor of chemistry in the Polytechnic School; he then obtained leave to retire, but he survived only a few years, and died of a paralytic affection, or rather of a total decay of strength, the 21st of December 1815, at a period when the political changes in the kingdom would have exposed him to annoyances and perhaps hardships, which would have been very severely felt at so advanced an age. In stature he was rather below than above the middle size; his conversation was animated and copious, his manners courteous and obliging; he was full of anecdote, and always ready to communicate whatever information he possessed. He married, late in life, Madame Picardet, the widow of an academician of Dijon, whose tastes and pursuits were congenial with his own, and who had distinguished herself by translating several works of science and of literature from the different languages of the north of Europe. As to his numerous publications, a bare catalogue of these will be amply sufficient to show the extent of his researches and the variety of his pursuits. It is the more necessary to do justice to his diligence and perseverance, as we cannot easily point out any one important discovery or invention that can be considered as commensurate with the high promise of his early infancy. The article Acid of the Dictionary, and the Methodical Nomenclature, must be ranked as the best of his productions; but the character of both these is rather useful than splendid.

1. Le Rat Iconoclaste, poème héroï-comique, 12, Dijon, 1763. 2. Mémoire sur l'instruction publique, 12, Dijon, 1764. 3. Eloge du Président Jeannin, Paris, 1766. 4. On the effect of air in combustion; Mem. Ac. Dij., ii., 1771, p. 183. 5. Memoir on the distillation of charcoal, Dijon, 1766. 6. Réflexions sur la mécanique à double aliguelle, Dijon, 1771. 7. Hauteurs barométriques, Dijon, 1771. 8. Consultation juridico-chimique sur le charbon fossile, Dijon, 1771. 9. Plaidoyer sur l'époque de démission d'un testateur, Dijon, 1772. 10. Digressions Académiques, 12, Dijon, 1772. 11. On a cold effervescence; Mem. Ac. Dij., ii., 1771, p. 183. 12. On the displacement of a wood, and on a cavern, p. 225. 13. Défense de la volatilité du phlogistique, 12, Paris, 1772. 14. Réflexions sur le parallèle du phlogistique et du causticum, Dijon, 1773. 15. On the coal of Montceaux in Burgundy; Journ. Phys. ii., p. 446. 16. On platinum, and its alloy with steel, vi., p. 193. 17. Discours Publics, 3 vols. Dijon and Paris, 1775. 18. On a fossil tooth; Journ. Phys. iii., p. 414; Mem. Ac. Dij., 1785, i., p. 162. 19. On the crystallization of iron; Journ. Phys. viii., p. 348, ix., p. 303; Mem. Sav. Etr., ix., p. 613. 20. Exercices de Chimie théorique et pratique, 4 vols. Dijon, 1777. 21. Réflexions sur le charbon fossile, 21. On metallic crystallizations; Journ. Phys. xiii., p. 90. 22. On a singular petrifaction, xv., p. 89. 23. On some properties of manganese, xvi., p. 156. 24. On the red selenite of Montollier, xvi., p. 443. 25. Opuscules de Bergman, 2 vols. S. Dijon, 1780, translated, with notes. 26. On simple earths, especially absorbents; Journ. Phys. xvii., p. 216, xviii., p. 68. 27. On the improvement of colours used in painting; Mem. Ac. Dij., 1782, p. 1. 28. On the coagulation of sulphuric acid, p. 68. 29. On some ores of copper, p. 100. 30. On baryta, p. 159; Journ. Phys. xviii., p. 299. 31. On biliary concretions, in Durande's Memoir; Mem. Ac. Dij., 1782, i., p. 196, p. 26. 32. On the manufacture of nitre, p. 1, 16. 33. On an ore of lead, p. 41. 34. Lettre à M. J. Z. sur l'influence de l'éducation publique, Dijon, 1782. 35. On a sulphurate of zinc; M. Ac. Dij., 1783, i., p. 37. 36. On an incombustible coal, p. 76. 37. On a spirit lamp for experiments, p. 159. 38. On the acetate of bismuth, p. 187. 39. On the karabic or succinic acid, ii., p. 1. 40. On an arcometer for sugar boilers, p. 52. 41. On a meagre limestone of Brie, p. 90, fit for terras. 42. On the mephitic gas contained in water, 1784, i., p. 85. 43. On the alteration of gold boiled in nitric acid, ii., p. 133. 44. On the natural dissolution of quartz; Swed. Trans., 1784; Mem. Ac. Dij., 1785, i., p. 46, 60. 45. On sugar and its acid, p. 90. 46. Description de l'acrostic de l'Académie, Dijon, 1784. 47. Plaidoyers sur plusieurs questions importantes, 4, Dijon, 1785. 48. On the conversion of iron into steel, and on plumbago; Journ. Phys., 1786. 49. Encyclopédie Méthodique, chimie, vol. iv., part 4, Paris, 1786, with Marat and Duhamel, noticed Ann. Chim., vii., p. 60. 50. Méthode de Nomenclature chimique, 8, Paris, 1787, by de Morveau, Lavoisier, Berthollet, and De Fourcroy. 51. On the reduction of an oxyd; Ann. Chim., i., p. 106. 52. On adamantine spar, p. 188. 53. On the expansion of gases, p. 256. 54. On adhesion, vii., p. 32. 55. On the affinity of mercury with metals, p. 42. 56. On some pneumatic apparatus, p. 50. 57. On the alteration of solutions heated in glass vessels, ix., p. 3. 58. On saturation and supersaturation, x., p. 38. 59. On a gravimeter, xxii., p. 30. 60. On a French hyacinth, containing zirconia, p. 72. 61. Notice of a scientific institution at Erfurt, xxii., p. 81. 62. Extract of a work on the agriculture and arts of Spain, p. 310. 63. Report of the labours of the society at Rouen, p. 320. 64. Notice of Nicholson's Journal, xxiii., p. 173. 65. On a native sulphate of strontium, p. 216. 66. On the composition of the earth, p. 292. 67. On the acid and base of iron, xxiv., p. 127. 68. Extract from Nicholson, p. 156. 69. On basaltic prisms, p. 160. 70. On a micaeous ore of iron, p. 161. 71. Notes on Nicholson, p. 175. 72. On the manufacture of soap, p. 192. 73. On pumice stone, p. 200. 74. On obtaining fire and water for chemical experiments, p. 310. 75. On platinum, xxv., p. 3. 76. On sugar, p. 37. 77. Note from Nicholson, p. 60. 78. On the combustion of the diamond, p. 76. 79. On alcarrazas, or cooling spars, p. 167. 80. On the water of Caldas, p. 180. 81. On nomenclature, p. 205. 82. On the composition of salts, from Kirwan, with tables, p. 282, 292, 296. 83. On the conducting power of charcoal for heat, xxvi., p. 225. 84. On the action of fused nitre on gold, silver, and platinum, xxvii., p. 42. 85. On tempering steel, p. 183. 86. On odorose emanations, p. 218. 87. On the precipitation of silica by lime, xxviii., p. 180. 88. On iron, p. 190. 89. On the effects of chlorine, xxix., p. 19. 90. On the natural productions of Spain, from Fernandes, p. 311. 91. On the succinic acid, xxix., p. 161. 92. On the destruction of contagious matter, p. 209. 93. On artificial coolings, p. 291. 94. On the feasibility of mixed earths, and on their mutual action, p. 320. 95. On a peculiar crystallization of quartz, xxx., p. 117. 96. On the action of metallic substances on vegetable colours, and on laca, p. 180. 97. On the combustion of a diamond, xxxi., p. 72. 98. Notice of Reuss's mineralogical dictionary, p. 177. 99. On the affinities of the earths, p. 246. 100. On the silicas found by Davy in the epidermis of vegetables, p. 276. 101. On the conversion of iron into cast steel by a diamond, p. 328; the diamond weighed thirteen grams. 102. On the conversion of diamond into charcoal, and on the decomposition of sulphur, xxxii., p. 222. 103. On the comparison of the French and German weights, p. 222. 104. Extract of Thénard's memoir on antimony, p. 175. 105. Chemical news, p. 328. 106. Account of Lister's theory of elasticity, xxxiii., p. 110. 107. On the colouring principle of the lapiz lazuli, xxxiv., p. 54, supposed to be a sulphuret of iron combined with earth. 108. Note on adhesion, p. 199. 109. On the theory of crystallization, Journal de l'Éc. Polyt., i., p. 278. 110. Analysis of a chalcedony, p. 297. 111. On the composition and proportions of salts, M. Inst. Se, ii., p. 326. 112. On anomalies in affinities, p. 460, v., p. 55. 113. On the composition of the alcalis, iii., p. 321; supposing them to contain lime. 114. On a metal proper for small coins, vii., p. 80. 115. On the measurement of high temperature, and on expansion, ix., ii., p. 5; a thermometer of platinum. 116. On the tenacity of brittle metals, and on the different densities of liquids, p. 257. 117. Extrait de l'Acad. des Sciences, i., p. 326. 118. To address to the Annales de Chymie, which he intended to be an active co-operator to the close of his life, we find a multiplicity of his essays and abstracts in the latter volumes. 117. On lime and mortar, xxxvii., p. 253. 119. Report on the tartaric acid, xxxviii., p. 30. 120. On a lamp, p. 153. 121. On Woodhouse's opinion of phlogiston, p. 272. 122. On a cold combustion of the carbolic oxyd, xxxix., p. 18. 123. Treatise on the means of disinfecting the air; Extr. Annales Chymie, xxxix., p. 74, in Dutch by Luitzschus, noticed Ann. Chim., xlv., p. 105. 124. On the analysis and synthesis of earths, p. 171. 125. On a stove, xli., p. 79. 126. On bell-metal, p. 167.