Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/345

 POUCHET

POULTIEE D ELMOTTE

Louvain University. In 1849 he founded and edited La Belgique Democratique, and from 1863 onward he gave public lectures at Brussels on Belgian and foreign litera ture. In 1869 he established the Revue de Belgique, and edited it until 1874, when he was appointed professor of the history of literature at the Military Museum, Brussels. He was admitted to the Belgian Academy in 1881, and in 1883 he became Curator of the Wiertz Museum. Potvin was one of the courageous workers with Victor Hugo in the stormy days. Between 1838 and 1862 he published twelve volumes of poems and songs of a fiery democratic and anti-clerical nature. He was a fine lyrist, and a learned student of old French literature. His more out spoken Eationalist works were published under the name &quot; Dom Jacobus,&quot; and from 1873 to 1883 he was President of the Brussels Libre. Pensee. D. 1902.

POUCHET, Professor Felix Archimede,

M.D., French natural historian. B. Aug. 26, 1800. Ed. Eouen and Paris. After graduating in medicine in 1827, Pouchet devoted his attention to the study of science, and in 1828 he was appointed Director of the Eouen Natural History Society. In 1838 he became professor at the School of Medicine. He was a Corre sponding Member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, and he made many valuable con tributions to microscopic science. He is said to have spent one half of his life at the microscope. His best work is L Univers (1865) ; but he is chiefly remem bered for his spirited championship of spontaneous generation against Pasteur and others (Traite de la generation spon- tanee, 1852, etc.). His philosophy was Materialistic. D, Dec. 6, 1872.

POUCHET, Professor Henri Charles Georges, M.D., Sc.D., son of preceding, French anatomist. B. Feb. 24, 1833. Ed. Eouen, Paris, and (under Sir Eichard Owen) London. In 1865 Pouchet was appointed assistant naturalist at the Paris G17

Museum, and in 1870 he became General Secretary of the Prefecture of Police. He was a good anthropologist, but the appoint ment was largely political, as he was a strong republican. He returned to science, and in 1875 he succeeded Paul Bert at the University, and lectured at the Ecole Normale Sup6rieure. In 1879 he was nominated professor of comparative anatomy at the Museum. He was ad mitted to the Legion of Honour in 1880. Pouchet wrote a number of biological and anthropological works (De la plurality des races humaines, 1858; Precis d histologie humaine, 1863, etc.), and contributed to the Revue des deux Mondes, the Philosophic Positive, and other periodicals. D. Mar. 29, 1894.

POUGENS, Marie Charles Joseph de,

French writer and archaeologist. B. Aug. 15, 1755. Pougens, who was believed to be a natural son of the Prince de Conti, was extraordinarily precocious ; but in the course of his studies of art and diplomacy in Italy he lost his sight, at the age of twenty-four, through a bad attack of small pox. He was not entirely excluded from public life, since it was he who negotiated the commercial treaty with England in 1786. He devoted his time mainly to letters and philosophy, however, and shared the views and the society of the Encyclo paedists. In 1886 he published Recreations de philosophic et de morale. The Eevolution deprived him of his fortune, but he became a prosperous bookseller and publisher. He married a niece of the English Admiral Boscawen. His Lettres Philosophiques (1825) and Memoires et Souvenirs (1834) are full of interesting information about the great Eationalists of the eighteenth century. Mar6chal includes Pougens in his Dictionnaire des Athees. D. Dec. 19, 1833.

POULTIER D ELMOTTE, Francois

Martin, French writer. B. Dec. 31, 1753.

After a varied career as soldier, clerk, and

opera-singer, Poultier d Elmotte became a

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