Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/725

 CHEYENNE

G51

CHEZY

sur les corps gras d'orgine animale" (1823), in which he demonstrated thai fats have the constitution of ethereal salts and are neutral glycerine ethers of fatty acid;-; that is, that they can be separated into their respective fatty acids and glycerine. He demon- strated the reactions occurring when this phenome- non, known as saponification, is brought about by strong bases or strong acids. He distinguished the constituent acids of the common fats and deter- mined their con- stants. Practical corollaries of this discovery were the establishment of the great industry of stearin candle manufacture and the introduction of glycerine into commerce on a large scale. These researches also led to a broadening amongst chemists of all countries in the study of the theory of the constitution of organic bodies. Chevreul's position as director of the Gobelins, to which he had been appointed by Louis XVIII, led to his important discoveries, both in the chemistry of ■_ previously little understood, and in the phy- i ciil. mi- and colour effect. His papers on the latter subject began in 1828, in the "Memoires de I'Academie", and his great work, "The Law of Simul- taneous Contrast 'if Colours", was published in 1839. Similar studies had engrossed the attention of Abb<i Hauy, tin' crystallographer, and of Scherffer, a Jesuit I i 7-'i I ! ; but Chevreul was able to deduce from a vast number of his own observations the laws govern- ing changes in intensity of tone and shade or modi- fication of colour, and particularly the influence of one colour on another in juxtaposition. A practical application of this knowledge, together with practical results from the study of dye-stuffs, and the blending of colours in dyeing, served to bring this art to a perfection which, increased again by the variety of dyes obtainable from benzol, has been of the utmost Use industrially.

Chevreul also participated in many of the philo- sophical debates of his century. He strongly com- bated scepticism and materialism, and constantly ed that the harmony of the universe and nat- ure, and of man's life and place in them, deinon- I a wisdom which must be called Divine. 'In some who had written of him as an advocate of an irreligious science he answered by asserting in an open letter to a friend (published in " Le Bien Public" 17 September, 1886) that he wished to be known as a savant, and at the same time a faithful Catholic: "Those who know me", he wrote, "also know that

burn a Catholic, the son ,,l Christian parents. 1 live

and 1 nuan to die a Catholic." While Chevreul will not occupy a place in the history of chemistry as high as his fellow-countryman ami contemporary, Dumas, he nevertheli the beerf examples of

the union of research with technical practice result- ing in changes great enough to affect the history of nations. The following are his principal works: "Le- Cons de chimie appliquee a la teinturo" ( I s_'s I V'.l );

"De la loi du contrasts Bimultane' des couleurs" " I - -a- di mi canique chimique" ( 185 i) ; "De la baguette divinatoire (1854); "Considera- tions sur l'histoire de la partie de la mgdecine qui

concerne la prescription des remedes" (1865); "His- toire des connaissances chimiques" (1866).

Farge, Biographic de Chevreul; Huffman, Nckrolop auf Cherreol, Bcrichlc ,l.:r deutxehen rhemisch, n ticsclhchaft. XXII,

8, 1163; Bounce ..n-.,n, 1/ /■;. < ■hermit iii Jour.Amer.Chem. Soc, XI, 71; Deny* i'.i.-hin. Le Doyen da Eludiants, in Le Correspondant (25 August, IsMi, til!); iUn.l.v, .1/. E. Chevreul, in Cosmos I'i September, lssfii, l.M; Knei.i.eh, .V. E. Chevreul in Das Christcnthum und die Vcrtrctcr dcr neucrcil Naturwissen- schaft, p. 197 (St. Louis, 1904).

Charles F. McKenna.

Cheyenne, Diocese of (Cheyennensis), estab- lished 9 August, 1887, is coextensive with the State of Wyoming, an area of 97,.">7. r ) square miles. Its first bishop, Rt. Rev. Maurice F. Burke, was consecrated 28 October, 1887. Wyoming had been included in the Diocese of Omaha, established in 1SS5; before that it belonged to the Vicariate Apostolic of Nebraska. The first Mass, of which there is a record, offered up within the territory of Wyoming was celebrated by the Jesuit missionary, Father De Smet, on the open prairie at the fur-traders' rendezvous on Green River, Sunday, 4 July, 1840. The congregation was com- posed of Flathead, Snake and other Indians, and a motley group of trappers and hunters. Father De Smet passed through Wyoming many times within the next eleven years on missionary trips, and as army-chaplain and Indian pacificator. Priests from Canada passed through en mute to Indian missions, anil ministered to Canadian fur-traders and other Catholics whom they met at Fort Laramie and else- where in Wyoming. Owing to the naturally arid soil, the settlement of Wyoming has been very slow. Ab- sentee cattle-owners ranged vast herds freely every- where within its boundaries. The development of mines waited on the tardy building of railroads. Scores of Catholics lived in this territory over thirty years and reared families without sacraments. Mass or priest. The losses to the Faith in Wyoming, as in neighbouring states, have been appalling. Vicars Apostolic, afterwards bishops, had no funds for edu- cating or supporting missionary priests. It would seem that in 1887, as indeed for nearly a decade after, Wyoming's need was not so much diocesan organiza- tion as travelling missionaries. The ecclesiastical census of 1907 gives the diocese about 10,000 Catho- lics in a population of about 100,000; 22 churches, 7 of which had been built within the year: 17 priests, 20 missions without churches, one academy and day- school in Cheyenne and an Indian school at St. Stephen's Mission.

Catholic Directory (Milwaukee. I'lilsi; I 'miTENliEN AND

Richardson, Life, Letter* and Travel* <■/ Father I ' urrc-J can De Smet, S. J. (New York, 1905), I-II, passim.

J. A. Dotty.

Chezy, Antoine-Leonard de, a French Orient- alist, b. at Neuilly, 15 January, 1773; d. at Paris, 31 August, 1832. His father was an engineer, and he was originally destined for a scientific career, but he preferred linguistic studies, and devoted himself to Arabic and Persian under Sacy and bangles. In 1799 he was appointed assistant librarian in thedepartment of manuscripts of the Bibliotheque Nationale. At- t racted by the Sanskrit manuscripts, he was the first Frenchman who took up the study of India's sacred language, though he had neither grammar nor diction- ary Pi assist him. When, in is] I. the first professor- ship of Sanskrit in Europe was established at the

College de France, Chezy was called to the position. Many of the foremost European Sanskritists were his pupils, among them Burnout'. Langlois, Loiseleur- Deslongcharnps, and Lassen. In 1805 Chezy married

Wilhi'lmine ( 'hristiane von Klencke. belter kin

Helmina von Chezy. an authoress ni some reputation.

The couple separated after five yi

He is the author of numerous editions and (ran 1 8 tionj of Oriental works. In |si)7 appeared "Les

Amours de Medjnoun et Leila", a translation of