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FAUJAS DE

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 206 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FAUJAS DE See also:

SAINT-FOND, See also:BARTHELEMY (1741-1819), See also:French geologist and traveller, was See also:born at Montelimart on the 17th of May 1741. He was educated at the See also:Jesuits' See also:College at See also:Lyons; afterwards he,went to See also:Grenoble, applied himself to the study of See also:law, and was admitted See also:advocate to the See also:parliament. He See also:rose to be See also:president of the See also:seneschal's See also:court (1765), a See also:post which he honourably filled, but the duties of which became irksome, as he had See also:early See also:developed a love of nature and his favourite relaxation was found in visits to the See also:Alps. There.he began to study the forms, structure, See also:composition and super-position of rocks. In 1775 he discovered in the Velay a See also:rich See also:deposit of pozzuolana, which in due course was worked by the See also:government. In 1776 he put himself in communication with See also:Buffon, who was not slow to perceive the value of his labours. Invited by Buffon to See also:Paris, he quitted the law, and was appointed by See also:Louis XVI. assistant naturalist to the museum, to which See also:office was added some years later (1785, 1788) that of royal See also:commissioner for mines. One of the most important of his See also:works was the Recherches sur See also:les volcans eteints du Vivarais et du Velay, which appeared in 1778. In this See also:work, rich in facts and observations, he developed his theory of the origin of volcanoes. In his capacity of commissioner for mines Faujas travelled in almost all the countries of See also:Europe, everywhere devoting See also:attention to the nature and constituents of the rocks. It was he who first recognized the volcanic nature of the basaltic columns of the See also:cave of Fingal (See also:Staffa), although the See also:island was visited in 1772 by See also:Sir See also:Joseph See also:Banks, who remarked that the See also:stone " is a coarse See also:kind of Basaltes, very much resembling the Giants' See also:Causeway in See also:Ireland " (See also:Pennant's Tour in See also:Scotland and Voyage to the See also:Hebrides). Faujas's Voyage en Angleterre, en Ecosse et aux Iles Hebrides (1797) is full of interest—containing anecdotes of Sir Joseph Banks and Dr See also:John Whitehurst, and an amusing See also:account of " The See also:Dinner of an See also:Academic See also:Club " (the Royal Society), and has been translated into See also:English (2 vols., 1799).

Having been nominated in 1793 See also:

professor at the Jardin See also:des Plantes, he held this post till he was nearly eighty years of See also:age, retiring in 1818 to his See also:estate of Saint-Fond in See also:Dauphine. Faujas took a warm See also:interest in the See also:balloon experiments of the See also:brothers Montgolfier, and published a very See also:complete Description des experiences de la See also:machine aerostatique de MM. Montgolfier, &c. (1783, 1784). He contributed many scientific See also:memoirs to the Annales and the Memoires of the museum of natural See also:history. Among his See also:separate works, in addition to those already named are—Histoire naturelle de la See also:province de Dauphine (1781. 1782); Mineralogie des volcans (1784); and Essai de geologie (1803-1809). Faujas died on the 18th of See also:July 1819.

End of Article: FAUJAS DE

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