Dolomieu, Deodati-Guy-Silvain-Tancred Gratet De

, a very able mineralogist, was born in Dauphiny, June 24, 1750. Of his early history our authorities give but a confused account. He was inspector of the mines, and commander of the order of Malta. He first went to sea at the age of eighteen, when being insulted by one of his companions, who was on board the same ship, he fought and killed him; for which, on his return to Malta, he was sentenced to death by the chapter of the order. The grand-master, however, granted him his pardon, but as it was necessary that it should be confirmed by the pope, and as his holiness was at that time out of humour with the knights, he remained inflexible, and Dolomieu was confined for nine months in a dungeon in the island. He afterwards resumed his studies, and accompanied the regiment of carabineers in which he was an officer. At Metz he took his first lessons in chemistry and natural history, and his progress became so rapid, that the academy of sciences granted him the title of corresponding member, which favour attached him entirely to natural philosophy. He then quitted the service, and almost immediately began his travels through Sicily, which produced “Voyage aux Isles de Lipari,” 1783, 8vo; a very interesting account of these volcanic isles, and forming very useful materials for a history of volcanoes. In the same year he published “Memoire sur le tremblemens de terre de la Calabre in 1783,” 8vo, which the following year was translated into Italian; and in 1788, “Memoire sur les isles Ponces, et Catalogue raisonne de PEtna,” 8vo.

On the commencement of the revolution, he embraced the principles of the popular party, but refusing any public employment, pursued his favourite studies. In the “Journal de Physique,” for 1790, we find a dissertation by him on the origin of basaltes; and he prepared the mineralogical articles of the new Encyclopaedia. The revolutionary horrors, which were fatal to his friend the duke de Rochefoucault, who was murdered before his eyes, had likely to have been equally fatal to himself, his name being inserted in the lists of the proscribed by the tyrants of the

of the Bible into the Manks Gaelic. Dr. Krlly married a daughter of Mr. Peter Dolloml. This Life wos printed for private distribution by Messrs. Dollond, and obligingly presented to the Editor of this Dictionary by Mr. G. H. Dollond. Besides the Life, there is an Appendix of various iroportaril papers relating to the discovery aud uses of the achromatic telescope. | day; but he escaped by wandering from place to place, until calmer times, when he was appointed inspector of the mines, and at length Bonaparte took him with him in his expedition to Egypt. He is said to have contributed to the surrender of Malta to the French, by the connections which he still preserved there; but after the memorable battle of Aboukir, when obliged to land in Calabria, he was seized by order of the king of Naples, and thrown into a dungeon at Messina. Here he was detained, notwithstanding the earnest applications of the French government, the king of Spain, sir Joseph Banks, and other eminent characters in Europe, nor was he released until the peace of 1800. He then resumed his wonted occupations, visited the mountains of Swisserland, and was about to have published the result of his observations, when he died Nov. 28, 1801, at Dree, near Macon. He had been appointed member of the conservative senate immediately after his return, and was a member of the Institute. After his death was published his essay “Sur la philosophie mineralogique,” composed during his imprisonment at Malta, where such were his privations, that, as he informs us, the black of his lamp, diluted with water, served him for ink; his pen was a fragment of bone, shaped with great labour on the floor of his prison, and the principal part of his work was written on the margins, and between the lines of some books which bad been left in his possession. These contrivances gave him the pleasure which is felt on overcoming difficulties; and he adds, that had it not been that he found himself placed in such a situation, perhaps he never would have undertaken this work at all. His last journey to the Alps was lately published by Bruun Neergaard, in 8vo. ¹