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 BOUKSAULT BOUTEVILLE 161 Galitzin, then unknown to him, from drowning. His principal works are : Description des Alpes pennines et rhetiennes (2 vols., Geneva, 1781); new edition, comprising also Nbuvelle descrip- tion des glacieres et glaciers de la Savoie, par- ticulierement de la vallee de Ghamouny et du Mont Blanc (3 vols., 1787) ; and Description des cols et passages des Alpes (2 vols., 1803). BOURSAULT, Edme, a French author, born at Mussy-l'five'que, Burgundy, in October, 1638, died at Hontlucon, Sept. 15, 1701. He went to Paris in 1651, became after a few years a popular writer, and was appointed teacher of the dauphin in reward for his publication De la veritable etude des sounerains (Paris, 1671) ; but he declined this office, as well as member- ship of the academy, on account of his igno- rance of Latin. By his attacks upon high personages at court he lost a pension of 2,000 francs that had been given him by Louis XIV., and narrowly escaped the Bastile. He assailed Moliere, who revenged himself by impaling him in his comedy ISimpromptu de Versailles ; at- tacked Boileau in La satire des satires, hut subsequently was of service to him ; and dis- paraged Racine's Britannicus in a preface to his novel ofArtemise et Polianthe. His Lettres de respect, ^obligation et d 'amour (Lettres d Babet) derive a romantic interest from the story of Babet, who died in a convent to which she had been consigned by her parents on account of her devotion -to Boursault. His fame rests chiefly on his comedies, JUsope d la mile, JSsope d la cour, and Le Mercure galant, the last of which is still occasionally performed. BOUSSINGiULT, Jean Baptlste Joseph Mendonne, a French chemist, born in Paris, Feb. 2, 1802. He was educated in the mining academy at Saint-Etienne, and afterward employed by an English company to direct the working of some mines in South America. During the revolution and the war of independence he joined Bolivar, and obtained the rank of colo- nel. He explored Venezuela, and all the re- gions between Cartagena and the mouths of the Orinoco, as well as Peru and Ecuador, making numerous observations in meteorology and collections in botany and mineralogy. He was the friend and correspondent of Alex- ander von Humboldt. On his return to France, he was appointed professor of chemis- try and dean of the faculty of sciences at Ly- ons ; and in 1839 he became a member of the institute and taught in the chair of Dumas at the Sorbonne. Among his best works is J2co- nomie rurale (2 vols., Paris, 1844; English translation by Law, London, 1845 ; new French ed., Agronomie, chimie agricole . et physiologic, 3 vols., 1861-'4). The apprecia- tion of manures according to the proportions of nitrogen which they contain is chiefly due to the researches of Boussingault ; and in coop- eration with Dumas he measured the exact proportions of the constituent elements of at- mospheric air. He has made valuable obser- vations on the peculiar properties and uses of different kinds of vegetables in the feeding and the fattening of cattle, and discovered a very simple method of preparing oxygen by means of baryta. He is one of the chief writers for the Annales de physique et de chimie, and for the annals of the academy. He was elected to the constituent assembly in 1848. BOtTERWEK, Friedrieh, a German metaphy- sician and writer on aesthetics, born at Oker, near Goslar, April 15, 1766, died at Gottingen, Aug. 9, 1828. He began the study of law at the university of Gottingen, but soon neglected it to devote himself to literary pursuits, and wrote a number of poems and a romance, Graf Donamar (republished at Gottingen in 1800). In 1787 he went to Hanover and after- ward to Berlin ; but, discouraged at the cold reception of his works, he returned in 1789, and applied himself to philosophy and literary history. He became a supporter of Kant, and delivered a course of lectures on his doctrines. In 1797 he was appointed adjunct professor of philosophy at Gottingen, and in 1802 full pro- fessor. From a disciple of Kant he became an ardent follower of Jacobi, his Lehrbuch der philosophischen Wissenschaften (2 vols., Got- tingen, 1813 ; 2d ed., 1820) and his Religion der Vernunft (Gottingen, 1824) supporting opinions exactly opposed to those of his Ideen zu einer allgemeinen Apodiktik (1799). His principal and most famous work was his Ge- schichte der neuern Poesie und BeredsamTceit (12 vols., Gottingen, 1801-'19). The section of this work relating to Spanish literature has acquired an especially wide reputation ; it has been translated into Spanish, and into English (2 vols., London, 1823). He also published Aesthetik (1806 ; with large additions, Leipsic, 1824) and Kleine Schriften (1818). BOUTEVILLE, Francois de Moiitinomio, sei- gneur de, sovereign count of Suxe, a French duellist, born in 1600, beheaded in Paris, June 27, 1627. In his youth he served against the Huguenots, and acquired notoriety as the most intrepid and skilful duellist of his day. For one of his duels, fought on Easter day, 1624, he, his adversary, and their seconds were condemned by the parliament of Paris to be hanged ; but they escaped, and the scaffold was destroyed by their friends. In 1626 he killed a marquis de Thorigny, then wounded one of his intimate friends who reproached him he- cause he had not chosen him as his second. For these two affairs he was obliged to fly to Brussels. The governing archduchess received him kindly, and interceded for his pardon with Louis XIII. The king refusing, Bouteville ex- claimed, " As the king refuses to pardon me, I shall fight next in Paris." This he did, fight- ing a duel with the marquis de Beuvron, a rela- tion and avenger of Thorigny. For this both were executed, in spite of the intercession of many powerful friends. Bouteville left a widow, who six months after his death gave birth to a son, who became celebrated as the marshal de Luxembourg.