BAUME (ANTHONY), a druggist in Paris, dis. tinguished by his knowledge of chemistry, and by his practical application of that knowledge, was born et Senlis in 1728. He was the son of an innkeeper, and was put apprentice to the eminent chemist Geof froy. He had not received a regular school educa tion, a defect which occasioned him many difficul ties in prosecuting his scientific researches, which he nevertheless did with much ardour. In 1752, he was admitted a member of the College of Phar macy. Soon after he was appointed profeb6or of chemistry at that establishment, and in his lectures he displayed the excellent arrangement which is seen in his published works. He carried to a great extent his commercial establishment in Paris for the preparation of drugs for medicine and the arts, such as the acetate of lead, the muriate of tin, mercurial salts, and antimonial mixtures. At the same time, he published papers on the crystallization of salts, on the phenomena of congelation, on thole of fer mentation, on the combinations and preparations or sulphur, opium, mercury, boracic acid, platina, and Peruvian bark, on the metallic oxides, the acetates of the alkalis, on emetic tartar, on vegetable fecula, and on vegetable extracts. In consequence of these scientific works, &wile was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences. He wrote a great many ar• ticles in the Didionnaire des Arts d Metiers, and had previously published several technological papers, namely on dyeing, on the gilding of clock-work, on a method for extinguishing fires, on the mode of keep ing corn, on buildings of plaster, on soap-making, on clay, and on the nature of soils fitted for agricul ture. He made numerous experiments along with Macquer, for the purpose of fabricating in France a porcelain equal to the Japanese. He established the
first manufactory of sal-iunmuniac in France, _,a sub stance which before that was obtained from Egypt. He was the first who devised and set on foot a pro cess for bleaching raw silk. Having acquired a competency by the success of these different under takinirs. ha retired from trade. and devoted his time to the application of chemistry to the arts. He improved the process for dyeing scarlet at the manufactory of the Gobelins, and he published a cheap process for purifying saltpetre. He be stowed much time in forming an areometer in tended for general use ; and published a process for obtaining a mild fecula from the horse-ches nut. By the revolution he lost his fortune, but was not thereby disheartened : this calamity led him to resume his trade. He was chosen a correspond entiof the Institute in 1796. He died in 1804, at the age of 76. He was temperate, regular in his habits, and active. Many of his papers are publish ed in the Mbnoires-de l'Acadensie des Sciences. Of his separate publications, the following may be men tioned here : Dissertation sur I'Ether, in 12mo. Plan dun tours de Chimie Esperimentak, 1757, in 12mo. Opuscules de Chimie, 1798, in 8vo. Ekmens de Pharmacy Theorigue et Pratigue, 2 vols. 8vo. Chimie Esperimentak et Raisonnee, 8 void. in 8vo, 1773. This last is antiquated, on account of the many improvements which have been made in the science of chemistry since its publication; but .his Elements of Pharmacy are still useful, as a good dis pensary, written with method and dearness : the pro cesses are well described, and the formula properly discussed. He did not adopt the Lavoisierian No menclature. (v.)