NOLLET (the Abbé John Anthony)

, a considerable French philosopher, and a member of most of the philosophical societies and academies of Europe, was born at Pimpré, in the district of Noyon, the 19th of November 1700. From the profound retreat, in which the mediocrity of his fortune obliged him to live, his reputation continually increased from day to day.| M. Dufay associated him in his Electrical Researches; and M. de Reaumur resigned to him his laboratory. It was under these masters that he developed his talents. M. Dufay took him along with him in a journey he made into England; and Nollet profited so well of this opportunity, as to institute a friendly and literary correspondence with some of the most celebrated men in this country.

The king of Sardinia gave him an invitation to Turin, to perform a course of experimental philosophy to the duke of Savoy. From thence he travelled into Italy, where he collected some good observations concerning the natural history of the country.

In France he was master of philosophy and natural history to the royal family; and professor royal of experimental philosophy to the college of Navarre, and to the sehools of artillery and engineers. The Academy of Sciences appointed him adjunct-mechanician in 1739, associate in 1742, and pensioner in 1757. Nollet died the 24th of April 1770, regretted by all his friends, but especially by his relations, whom he always succoured with an affectionate attention. The works published by Nollet, are the following:

1. Recueils de Lettres sur l'Electricité; 1753, 3 vols in 12mo.

2. Essai sur l'Electricité des Corps; 1 vol. in 12mo.

3. Recherches sur les Causes particulieres des Phenomenes Electriques; 1 vol. in 12mo.

4. L'Art des Experiences; 1770, 3 vols in 12mo.

His papers printed in the different volumes of the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences, are much too numerous to be particularized here; they are inserted in all or most of the volumes from the year 1740 to the year 1767 inclusive, mostly several papers in each volume.