BRONGNIART

brongniart, alexandre (1770-1847), french mineralogist and geologist, son of the eminent architect who designed the bourse and other public buildings of paris, was born in that city on the 5th of february 1770. at an early age he studied chemistry, under lavoisier, and after passing through the ecole des mines he took honours at the ecole de medecine; subsequently he joined the army of the pyrenees as _pharmacien_; but having committed some slight political offence, he was thrown into prison and detained there for some time. soon after his release he was appointed professor of natural history in the college des quatre nations. in 1800 he was made director of the sevres porcelain factory, a post which he retained to his death, and in which he achieved his greatest work. in his hands sevres became the leading porcelain factory in europe, and the researches of an able band of assistants enabled him to lay the foundations of ceramic chemistry. in addition to his work at sevres, quite enough to engross the entire energy of any ordinary man, he continued his more purely scientific work. he succeeded hauy as professor of mineralogy in the museum of natural history; but he did not confine himself to mineralogy, for it is to him that we owe the division of reptiles into the four orders of saurians, batrachians, chelonians and ophidians. fossil as well as living animals engaged his attention, and in his studies of the strata around paris he was instrumental in establishing the tertiary formations. in 1816 he was elected to the academy; and in the following year he visited the alps of switzerland and italy, and afterwards sweden and norway. the result of his observations was published from time to time in the _journal des mines_ and other scientific journals. wide as was the range of his interests his most famous work was accomplished at sevres, and his most enduring monument is his classic _traite des arts ceramiques_ (1844). he died in paris on the 7th of october 1847. his other principal works are :--_traite elementaire de mineralogie, avec des applications aux arts_ (2 vols., paris, 1807); _histoire naturelle des crustaces fossiles_ (paris, 1822); _classification et caracteres mineralogiques des roches homogenes et heterogenes_ (paris, 1827); the _tableau des terrains qui composent l'ecorce du globe, ou essai sur la structure de la partie connue de la terre_ (paris, 1829); and the _traite des arts ceramiques_ (1844). brongniart was also the coadjutor of cuvier in the admirable _essai sur la geographie mineralogique des environs de paris_ (paris, 1811); originally published in _ann. mus. hist. nat._ (paris, xi. 1808).