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DOLOMIEU

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 392 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DOLOMIEU , D$ODAT See also:

GUY SILVAIN TANCREDE GRATET DE (1750—1801), See also:French geologist and mineralogist, was See also:born at Dolomieu, near Tour-du-See also:Pin,in the See also:department of See also:Isere in See also:France, on the 24th of See also:June 1750. He was admitted in his See also:infancy a member of the See also:Order of See also:Malta. In his nineteenth See also:year he quarrelled with a See also:knight of the See also:galley on which he was serving, and in the See also:duel that ensued killed him. He was condemned to See also:death for his See also:crime, but in See also:consideration of his youth the See also:grand See also:master granted him a See also:pardon, which, at the instance of See also:Cardinal Torrigiani, was confirmed by See also:Pope See also:Clement XIII., and after nine months' imprisonment he was set at See also:liberty. Throughout that See also:period he had solaced himself with the study of the See also:physical sciences, and during his subsequent See also:residence at See also:Metz he continued to devote himself to them. In 1775 he published his Recherches sur la pesanteur See also:des See also:corps d diferentes distances du centre de la terre, and two See also:Italian See also:translations of mineralogical See also:treatises by A. F. Cronstedt (1702—1765) and T. O. See also:Bergman (1735—1784). These See also:works gained for him the See also:honour of See also:election as a corresponding member of the Academie des Sciences at See also:Paris. To obtain leisure to follow his favourite pursuits Dolomieu now threw up the See also:commission which, since the See also:age of fifteen, he had held in the carabineers, and in 1777 he accompanied the bailli (afterwards Cardinal L.

R. E.) de See also:

Rohan to See also:Portugal. In the following year he visited See also:Spain, and in 178o and 1781 See also:Sicily and the adjacent islands. Two months of the year 1782 were spent in examining the See also:geological structure of the See also:Pyrenees, and in 1783 the See also:earth-quake of See also:Calabria induced him to go to See also:Italy. The scientific results of these excursions are given in his Voyage aux Iles de Lipari (1783); Memoire sur le tremblement de terre de la Calabre (1784); Memoire sur See also:les 'Iles Ponces, et See also:catalogue raisonne des produits de l'See also:Etna (1788) and other works. In 1789 and 1790 he busied himself with an examination of the See also:Alps, his observations on which See also:form the subject of numerous See also:memoirs published in the See also:Journal de physique. The See also:mineral See also:dolomite, which was named after him, was described by Dolomieu in 1791. He returned to France in that year, bringing with him See also:rich collections of minerals. On the 14th of See also:September 1792 the duc de la Rochefoucauld, with whom he had been for twenty years on terms of the closest intimacy, was assassinated at Forges, and Dolomieu retired with the widow and daughter of the See also:duke to their See also:estate of See also:Roche See also:Guyon, where he wrote several important scientific papers. The events ofthe 9th See also:Thermidor (See also:July 27, 1794) having restored the See also:country to some tranquillity, Dolomieu recommenced his geological See also:tours, and visited various parts of France with which he had been previously unacquainted. He was in 1796 appointed engineer and See also:professor at the school of mines, and was chosen a member of the See also:Institute at the See also:time of its formation. At the end of 1797 he joined the scientific See also:staff which in 1798 accompanied See also:Bonaparte's expedition to See also:Egypt.

He had proceeded up the See also:

Nile as far asCairo when See also:ill-See also:health made his return toEurope necessary, and on the 7th of See also:March 1799 he set See also:sail from See also:Alexandria. His See also:ship proving unseaworthy put into See also:Taranto, and as See also:Naples was then at See also:war with France, all the French passengers were made prisoners. On the 22nd of May they were carried by ship to See also:Messina, whence, with the exception of Dolomieu, they embarked for the See also:coast of France. Dolomieu had been an See also:object of the hatred of the Neapolitan See also:court since 1783, when he revealed to the grand master of his order its designs against Malta, and the calumnies of his enemies' on that See also:island served now as a pretext for his detention. He was confined in a pestilential See also:dungeon, where, clothed in rags, and having nothing but a little See also:straw fQr a See also:bed, he languished during twenty-one months. Dolomieu, however, did not abandon himself to despair. Deprived of See also:writing materials, he made a piece of See also:wood his See also:pen, and with the See also:smoke of his See also:lamp for See also:ink he wrote upon the margins of a See also:Bible, the only See also:book he still possessed, his See also:treatise Sur la philosophie mineralogique et sur l'espece minerale (18o,). See also:Friends entreated, but in vain, for his liberty; it was with difficulty that they succeeded in furnishing him with a little assistance, and it was only by virtue of a See also:special clause in the treaty between France and Naples that, on the 15th of March 18o1, he was released. On his arrival in France he commenced the duties of the See also:chair of See also:mineralogy at the museum 392 in See also:Munich, on the 14th of See also:January ago, at the age of ninety-one. Even in articulo mortis he refused to receive the sacraments from the See also:parish See also:priest at the cost of submission, but the last offices were performed by his friend Professor See also:Friedrich. In addition to the works referred to in the foregoing See also:sketch, we may mention The See also:Eucharist in the First Three Centuries See also:Mainz, 1826) ; a See also:Church See also:History (1836, Eng. trans. 1840); See also:Hippolytus and Callistus (1854, Eng. trans., 1876) ; First Age of See also:Christianity (186o) ; Lectures on the See also:Reunion of the Churches; The Vatican Decrees; Studies in See also:European History (tr.

M. Warre, 189o) ; See also:

Miscellaneous Addresses (tr. M. Warre, 1894). See See also:Life by J. Friedrich (3 vols. 1899—1901); obituary See also:notice in The Times, rah January 189o; L. von See also:Kobell, 'Conversations of Dr Dellinger (tr. by K. See also:Gould, 1892). (J. J.

End of Article: DOLOMIEU

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