GUYTON DE MOI(VEAU (Baron Louts Brat Naafi), a celebrated Chemist ; known also as an ad vocate of eminence, and less advantageously, in his political character, as a regicide ; son of Antony Guyton de Morveau and Margaret de Saulle his wife, was born at Dijon, 4th January 1737.
His father was of a ,respectable family, and filled the situation of a Professor of Civil Law in the Uni versity of Dijon. He was fond of building;. and from the artificers who were frequently employed about his house, young Guyton appears to have de rived, almost in his infancy, a taste for mechanical pursuits, which led to an astonishing development of premature talent. For when he was only seven years old, he prevailed on his father to purchase, for his amusement, a dock which was greatly out of re. pair, and, as is said, be actually put it together and remedied its defects, without any assistance, so effectually that it continued to go extremely well for .50 or 60 years afterwards. The next year be was equally successful in cleaning and repairing a watch belonging to his mother. But, notwithstand. ing these remarkable exertions of ingenuity, it does not appear that they depended on any particular bent of the genius to the cultivation of the mechani• cal arts : at least no such bent was ever exhibited in any of his subsequent pursuits. His education was conducted in the ordinary manner at a provincial school or college, which he left at 16. Upon his re turn home he applied, for a shorttime, to botany, and he was soon after admitted as a student of law in the University of Dijon, where he remained for three years, and then removed to Paris, in order to con tinue his studies at the bar. In 1756, he paid a visit to Voltaire at Ferney, and he seems to have imbibed from this personage a taste for satirical poetry, which be soon afterwards displayed, upon the occurrence of a trifling accident, in a ceremony relating to a popular Jesuit of the day. Among his posthumous papers, also, he left some unfinished sketches of tragedies, which are said not to have been deficient in poetical merit.
At the age of 24, when he had made some pro gress in the practice of his profession as an advocate, his father procured for him, at the price of 40,000 francs, the appointment of Advocate-General of the Parliament of Dijon, so that he had no farther solici tude for the acquisition of an income adequate to his competent subsistence. His health was then con sidered as delicate ; but the fears which were enter tained for it proved to be completely groundless.
In January 1764, he was made an honorary mem ber of the Academy of Sciences at Dijon, then late ly established under the patronage of the Prince de Conde. This occurrence seems to have had consi derable influence on the pursuits which occupied his leisure hours; and be soon became by far the most distinguished ornament of the Academy which had paid him the compliment. His particular applica tion to chemistry arose in a great measure out of an accidental emulation with Dr Chardenon, who after wards very liberally undertook to assist him in the cultivation of this branch of science. He studied the works of Macquer and of Beaume, and he was furnish ed by the latter with the materials necessary for the establishment of a small laboratory for his own use.
With regard to the more general cultivation of li terature and science, he displayed considerable ta lent in a memoir on public instruction, together with a plan for a college, which he presented to the Par liament of Burgundy, insisting, with great force and success, in opposition to Diderot, on the importance of early education in modelling the character of the human mind. He wrote also, about the same time, for a prize essay, an Encomium on Charles V. of France, surnamed the Wise, which was afterwards inserted in the collection of his Discourses, published in three volumes.
In July 1767, he visited Paris with a view to the advancement of his scientific pursuits, and excited the admiration of the most celebrated chemists of the day, by the facility which he had acquired in the manipulation of his experiments. He entered, after bis return, into the investigation of the great ques tion respecting the oxydation of metals, though he did not succeed in removing the difficulties which then embarrassed it. In 1769, he pronounced, at the -opening of the Parliament, an elegant oration upon morals. He was soon afterwards engaged in some experiments respecting the communication of heat to different substances, the results of which, though not published, were of some importance to the theory of temperature. At the request of his friend Dr Durande, he undertook to inquire into the nature of biliary calculi, which he found to be readily soluble . in ether; and it appears that a combination of ether and oil of turpentine was of advantage to several of Dr Durande's patients, who were suffering from these concretions.