BRONGNIART, ALEXANDRE 7o-1847), French mineralogist and geologist, son of the eminent architect who de signed the Bourse and other public buildings of Paris, was born in that city, and became 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. In his hands Sevres became the leading factory in Europe, and the re searches of an able band of assistants enabled him to lay the foundations of ceramic chemistry. He succeeded flatly as pro fessor 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 ; and fossil as well as living animals engaged his attention. His Traite des arts cera miques (1844) is a classic.