5. I may mention the process of Fourcroy and Vauquelin for obtaining pure barytes, by exposing nitrate of barytes to a red heat, as a good one. They discovered the existence of phosphate of magnesia in bones, of phosphorus in the brain and in the milts of fishes, and of a considerable quantity of saccharine matter in the bulb of the common onion; which, by undergoing a kind of spontaneous fermentation was converted into manna.
In these, and many other similar discoveries, which I think it unnecessary to notice, we do not know what fell to the share of Fourcroy and what to Vauquelin; but there is one merit at least to which Fourcroy is certainly entitled, and it is no small one: he formed and brought forward Vauquelin, and proved to him, ever after, a most steady and indefatigable friend. This is bestowing no small panegyric on his character; for it would have been impossible to have retained such a friend through all the horrors of the French revolution, if his own qualities had not been such as to merit so steady an attachment.
Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau was born at Dijon on the 4th of January, 1737. His father, Anthony Guyton, was professor of civil law in the University of Dijon, and descended from an ancient and respectable family. At the age of seven he showed an uncommon mechanical turn: being with his father at a small village near Dijon, he there happened to meet a public officer returning from a sale, whence he had brought back a clock that had remained unsold on account of its very bad condition. Morveau supplicated his father to buy it. The purchase was made for six francs. Young Morveau took it to pieces and cleaned it, supplied some parts that were wanting, and put it up again without any assistance. In 1799 this very clock was resold at a higher price, together with the estate and house in which it had been originally placed; having during the whole of that time continued to go in the most satisfactory manner. When only eight years of age, he took his mother's watch to pieces, cleaned it, and put it up again to the satisfaction of all parties.
After finishing his preliminary studies in his father's house, he went to college, and terminated his attendance on it at the age of sixteen. About this time he was instructed in botany by M. Michault, a friend of his father, and a naturalist of some eminence. He now commenced law student in the University of Dijon; and, after three years of intense application, he went to Paris to acquire a knowledge of the practice of the law.
While in Paris, he not only attended to law, but cultivated at the same time several branches of polite literature. In 1756 he paid a visit to Voltaire, at Ferney. This seems to have inspired him with a love of poetry, particularly of the descriptive and satiric kind. About a year afterwards, when only twenty, he published a poem called "Le Rat Iconoclaste, ou le Jesuite croquée." It was intended to throw ridicule on a well-known anecdote of the day, and to assist in blowing the fire that already threatened destruction to the obnoxious order of Jesuits. The adventure alluded to was this: Some nuns, who felt a strong predilection for a Jesuit, their spiritual director, were engaged in their accustomed Christmas occupation of modelling a representation of a religious mystery, decorated with several small statues representing the holy personages connected with the subject, and among them that of the ghostly father; but, to mark their favourite, his statue was made of loaf sugar. The following day was destined for the triumph of the Jesuit: but, meanwhile, a rat had devoured the valuable puppet. The poem is written after the agreeable manner of the celebrated poem, "Ververt."
At the age of twenty-four he had already pleaded several important causes at the bar, when the office of advocate-general, at the parliament of Dijon, was advertised for sale. At that time all public situations, however important, were sold to the best bidder. His father having ascertained that this place would be acceptable to his son, purchased it for forty thousand francs. The reputation of the young advocate, and his engaging manners, facilitated the bargain.
In 1764 he was admitted an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Belles Lettres, of Dijon. Two months after, he presented to the assembled chamber of the parliament of Burgundy, a memoir on public instruction, with a plan for a college, on the principles detailed in his work. The encomiums which every public journal of the time passed on this production, and the flattering letters which he received, were unequivocal proofs of its value. In this memoir he endeavoured to prove that man is bad or good, according to the education which he has received. This doctrine was contrary to the creed of Diderot, who affirmed, in his Essay on the Life of Seneca, that nature makes wicked persons, and that the best institutions cannot render them good. But this mischievous opinion was successfully refuted by Morveau, in a letter to an anonymous friend.
The exact sciences were so ill taught, and lamely cultivated at Dijon, during the time of his university education, that after his admission into the academy his notions on mechanics and natural philosophy were scanty and inaccurate. Dr. Chardenon was in the habit of reading memoirs on chemical subjects; and on one occasion Morveau thought it necessary to hazard some remarks which were ill received by the doctor, who sneeringly told him that having obtained such success in literature, he had better rest satisfied with the reputation so justly acquired, and leave chemistry to those who knew more of the matter.
Provoked at this violent remark, he resolved upon taking an honourable revenge. He therefore applied himself to the study of Macquer's Theoretical and Practical Chemistry, and of the Manual of Chemistry which Beaumé had just published. To the last chemist he also sent an extensive order for chemical preparations and utensils, with a view of forming a small laboratory near his office. He began by repeating many of Beaumé's experiments, and then trying his inexperienced hand at original researches. He soon found himself strong enough to attack the doctor. The latter had just been reading a memoir on the analysis of different kinds of oil; and Morveau combated some of his opinions with so much skill and sagacity, as astonished every one present. After the meeting, Dr. Chardenon addressed him thus: "You are born to be an honour to chemistry. So much knowledge could only have been gained by genius united with perseverance. Follow your new pursuit, and confer with me in your difficulties."
But this new pursuit did not prevent Morveau from continuing to cultivate literature with success. He wrote an Eloge of Charles V. of France, surnamed the Wise, which had been given out as the subject of a prize, by the academy. A few months afterwards, at the opening of the session of parliament, he delivered a discourse on the actual state of jurisprudence; on which subject, three years after, he composed a more extensive and complete work. No code of laws demanded reform more urgently than those of France, and none saw more clearly the necessity of such a reformation.