Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/907

* BEGNATJLT. 803 REGNIEB.. 1872), Larroumet (ib., 18S6), and Roger Marx, in Les artistes celehres (ib., 18SC). REGNAX7LT, Hexri Victor (1810-78). A distinguished French chemist and physicist, born at Aix-la-Chapelle, Germany. When" a mere boy he went to Paris and found employment in a dra- pery establishment. In this manner he was able to provide for himself and his sister, while devoting his leisure hours to study. In 1830. at the age of scarcely twenty years, he was admitted to the Ecole Polytechnique, and two years later, on completing his course of .study, engaged in min- ing engineering. After fiUiiig for some time the chair of chemistry at Lyons, he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences, and be- came, in 1840, professor of chemistry at the Ecole Polytechnique. In the followirig year he succeeded Dulong as professor of physics at the College de France. In 1847 he was made chief engineer of mines, and in 1854 director of the porcelain manufactory at S6vres. Regnault was distinguished for extreme skill and patience in experimental work, more than for brilliance or novelty in discovery, or the philosophical inter- pretation of empirical data. He devoted him- self especially to the careful measurement of the constants of nature, laying the foundation on which important chapters in theoretical and pliysical chemistry have since been worked out by other investigators. His greatest work is that on the numerical data bearing on the working of steam-engines, for which the Roval Society of London awarded him their Rumford medal. This work forms vol. xxi. of the Memoires of the Acad- emy of Sciences. A few of his contributions may be mentioned here. He measured with great care the specific heats of various substances, and his determinations showed that the specific heat of solid chemical compounds is very nearly equal to the sum of the products of the specific heats and the numbers of atoms of the ingredient ele- ments. He similarly showed that the specific heat of a solid alloy can be calculated directly from the specific heats of the component metals. He determined precisely the values of the vapor- tension of water corresponding to various temper- atures, and measured the vapor-tensions of mix- tures such as those of sulphuric acid and water. He determined the densities of the so-called per- manent gases and investigated the true relations between the pressure and volume of gases. Ac- cording to the law of Boyle and Manotte, the pressure of a gas kept at constant temperature is inversely proportional to its volume. Re- gnault showed that this important law, while ap- plicable in ideal cases, and hence interesting to the theoretical engineer, is in reality only ap- proximately correct; that for most gases the pressure is .somewhat smaller than that re- quired bv the law. while for hydrogen, which he called a" more than perfect gas. the pressure_is greater than that required by the law. Kc- gnault's data have led to important developments in the kinetic theorv of gases and to more correct views concernins the relations between the gase- ous and liquid' states of aggregation. Among hi= contributions to organic chemistry deser^-es mention the discoverv of a number of interestmg compounds, including derivatives of the un- saturated hydrocarbons. He published us ob- servations in the Annales de CJnmie et de Phy- sique and the Comptes Rendiis of the Academy of Sciences He also wrote: Cours elementaire de chimie (]840-i50, and several later editions), and an abridgment of this work, entitled fre- tniers iUmenls de chimie (1850; 6th ed. 1874). A collection in 3 volumes of most of his papers on gases and vapors appeared under the title. Relation des experiences entreprises pour deter- miner les lois et les dtmnies physiques tUces- saires au calcul des machines d feu (1847-70). Consult Dumas, Eloge historique de Henri Victor UeynauU (1881). EEGNAXILT, .Tea.-t Baptiste, Baron (1754- 1829). A French painter, of the classical school. He was born in Paris and studied under Bardin; took the Prix de Rome in 1776; was elected to the Academy in 1783 and made professor in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1705. His works are in the cold correct style of the pupils of David: the best known are the "Baptism of Christ," much praised by Raphael Mengs. and his master- piece, the "Education of Achilles." both of which, along with other works arc in the Louvre. Among his pupils were Guerin, Herseiit, Blondel, and Richehomme. BEGNIEB, rc-nyi', Claude Ambkoise, Duke of llassa (1736-1814). A French statesman, born at Blamont, Meurthe-et-Moselle. An advo- cate by profession, he was a deputy to the States General (1789), took a prominent part in estab- lishing the Republican judiciary, but retired dur- ing the Reign of Terror. In 1795 he was elected to the Council of the Ancients. He became president of that body in 1798, shared in the coup d'etat of the following year, and, as Coun- cilor of State under Bonaparte, was intrusted with the revision of the civil code. He was Minister of Police in 1802-04 and Minister of .Justice in 1802-12, when he was made president of the Legislative Assembly. KEGNIER, Henri de (1864—). A French poet, born in Uonfleur (Calvados), and educated in Paris at the College Stanislas. The series of sonnets, entitled Sites (1887), which first brought the poet to public notice, were essential- ly classic and correct. A new manner, new metres, and the sparing use of the vers hbre in the volumes which immediately followed, marked him as a leader among the Symbolists or Deca- dents and a pupil of Mallarm« and Verlaine. In this period mentitm should be made of Episodes (1888), less personal or analytical than any pre- ceding volume, and but little more than a series of vohiptuou.slv beautiful pictures; of Pocmes anciens et ronianesqucs (1890), in which sjtu- bolic meaning is given to many old stories: of Tel qu'en sonqe (1892), with its m.vstic and re_ flective fancv of double personality: and of irethuse (1895), his most finished work, an ad- mixture of Hellenic mvth and Iwauty with Cel- tic melancholy, la curbeille des heures reverts to the theme of the earlier poems^with an added beauty of treatment. And in Mcdailles d ars/ile (1900) the poet returns to his earlier exactness of metre In his fiction. La canne de jaspe (1895) Le trefle blanc (1899). and l.a dmihle maitresse (1900), he shows the same fondness for the unreal or for the chronologically remote, and the same melodious command of words. In 1900 Regnier received the Vitet prize from the French .cademv. His ability as a critic was sho«-n in his lectures to the American Ccrcle Francais in 1900. and by an essay on Mallarmfe in the Revue de Paris for 1898.