Chevreul

Chevreul, MICHEL EUGÈNE, a great French chemist, born at Angers, August 31, 1786. At seventeen he went to Paris, where he pursued the study of chemistry at the College of France, under the famous Vauquelin, with such zeal and success that at twenty he was allowed to take charge of the laboratory. He next lectured at the Collège Charlemagne, and was appointed special professor of Chemistry in charge of the dyeing department at the Gobelins. In 1826 he took his seat in the Academy of Sciences, and in 1830 became director of the Museum of Natural History. One of his earliest discoveries was that of margarine, oleine, and stearine in oils and fats. His studies in fatty bodies and his theory of saponification have opened up vast industries. Between the years 1828 and 1864 Chevreul studied colours, publishing important memoirs from time to time. This patriarch of the scientific world, 'le doyen des étudiants de France,' as he loved to be called, kept up his studies almost to his death, April 9, 1889. In 1886 the hundredth anniversary of his birth was celebrated with great enthusiasm. A medal was struck, and a grand fête given at the Museum in his honour, while he was presented with his bust by his colleagues at the Academy of Sciences. Chevreul was F.R.S. and a Commander of the Legion of Honour. Besides papers and memoirs innumerable in the learned journals, he published works on dyeing (1831), on the optical effects of silk stuffs, on colours and their application to the industrial arts (1864), and histories of chemical science (1866) and of theories of matter (1878). His De la Baguette divinatoire, du Pendule explorateur et des Tables tournantes (1854), is the best book on the subjects which it treats.