Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/265

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248

CHEVEEXJL.

afterwards mayor at Saint-Mand6. Taking to literary pnrsuits at an early age« he published in 1844 "Leis Voyageuses," a volume of poems written in conjunction with M. Laurent-Pichat. In 1848 he endeaYoured to enter the Consti- tuent assembly, but his candida- ture was dechured void, as he had not attained the requisite age. Toung Chevreau was an active canvasser for Prince Louis Napo- leon at the election for the Presi- dency, and soon afterwards (Jan. 10, 1849) he was made Prefect of the Ardeche. He applauded the coup d'4tat of Bee. 2, 1851, and his well-timed zeal was rewarded by the post of Secretary-General of the Home-Department. On resign- ing the Prefecture of the Ardfeche, he was elected a member of the General Council of that depart- ment. Subsequently he became Prefect of Nantes (1853), of the Bhdne (1864), and of the Seine, in succession to the famous Baron Haussmann (Jan. 5, 1870). When the first disasters of France in the war against Germany compelled the cabinet of M. Ollivier to make way for the Palikao ministry, M. Henri Chevreau was nominated Minister of the Interior. While occupying this responsible position he laboured energetically to or- ganize the Gurde Mobile through- out the country, caused 60 new battalions of the National Guard to be formed in Paris, and com- pleted those which already existed • in the provinces. After the battle of Sedan and the Bevolution of Sept. 4, 1870, he fled to Brussels, and then joined the Empress Euge- nie in England, but he subse- quently retimied to Paris. At the elections of Feb. 20, 1876, he un- successfully contested the second circonscription of Privas. In the following year at the elections of the 14th of October, which followed the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies, he came forward as a Bonapartist and an official candi-

date in the first circonscription of Privas (Ardftche) but he was again unsuccessful. M. Henri Chevreau was a senator under the Empire, and is a €h:and Officer of the Lc^on of Honour.

CHEVBEUL, MicHBL-EuoBNE, chemist, was born at Anglers, Aug. 81, 1786. Having completed Ms studies in the Central School of that place, at the age of nineteen he went to Paris, where he was engaged in the chemical factory of the celebrated Vauquelin, who discovered in his young pupil such aptitude and sagacity, that he in- trusted the direction of his labora- tory to him. In 1810 he was pre- parator of the chemical course in the Museum of Natural History, and in 1813 was appointed professor in the Lyc^ Charlemagne and officer of the university. In 1824 he was made director of the dye- ries and professor of special chem- istry in the carpet-manufactory of the Gobelins, where he had leisure to follow his favourite pursuits into detail, one of which was his inves- tigation of animal oils, or grease. In 1823 M. Chevreul published a woric on this subject, for which the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry awarded him the prize of 12,000 francs. M. Chevreul has written various scien- tific works, such as "Le9on8 de Chimie appliqu^ ^ la Teinture," published in 1828-31 ; " De la Loi du Contraste, &c.," in 1839 ; ^'Th^rie des E^fets Optiques que pr^sentent les Etoffes de Soie," in 1848; "De la Baguette divina- toire, du Pendule, et des Tables toumantes, in 1854; and "Des Couleurs et de leur Application aux Arts Industriels, ^ Taide des cercles chromatiques," in 1864. Some of these have been translated into various European languages. M. Chevreul has contributed to the proceedings of scientific societies, to dictionaries and other works. In 1830 he succeeded his former master Vauquelin in the chair of