, chevalier de Saint-Louis, and veteran pensionary of the academy of sciences,
, chevalier de Saint-Louis, and veteran pensionary of the academy of sciences, born at Dijon in 1715,
died the 4th of October, 1785, at the age of 70. He
signalized himself both as a military and a literary man. Being
wounded in the campaign of Bavaria, in the act of saving
marshal Saxe from the most imminent danger, he devoted
himself to the cultivation of mathematics and natural philosophy, and communicated to the French academy several valuable memoirs on those sciences. His separate publications were, 1. “A treatise of Optics,
” Memoirs of an Epizootia which raged in Burgundy.
” 3. “The Art of Forges
and Furnaces;
” this he wrote in partnership with M.
Bouchu, which was afterwards incorporated in the Cyclopaedia. The marquis de Courtivron, says his eulogist,
was a true philosopher. As he had properly appreciated
life, he resigned it without disquietude, and perhaps without regret. The only sentiment to be perceived through
the serenity and silence of his last moments, was that of
gratitude for the tenderness that was shewn him, and a
constant attention to spare the sensibility of his family and
friends.