FOURNET

fournet, joseph jean baptiste xavier (1801-1869), french geologist and metallurgist, was born at strassburg on the 15th of may 1801. he was educated at the ecole des mines at paris, and after considerable experience as a mining engineer he was in 1834 appointed professor of geology at lyons. he was a man of wide knowledge and extensive research, and wrote memoirs on chemical and mineralogical subjects, on eruptive rocks, on the structure of the jura, the metamorphism of the western alps, on the formation of oolitic limestones, on kaolinization and on metalliferous veins. on metallurgical subjects also he was an acknowledged authority; and he published observations on the order of sulphurability of metals (_loi de fournet_). he died at lyons on the 8th of january 1869. his chief publications were: e_tudes sur les depots metalliferes_ (paris, 1834); _histoire de la dolomie_ (lyons, 1847); _de l'extension des terrains houillers_ (1855); _geologie lyonnaise_ (lyons, 1861).