a differentes distances du centre
de la terre_, and two Italian translations of mineralogical treatises by
A. F. Cronstedt (1702-1765) and T. O. Bergman (1735-1784). These works
gained for him the honour of election as a corresponding member of the
Academie des Sciences at Paris. To obtain leisure to follow his
favourite pursuits Dolomieu now threw up the commission which, since the
age of fifteen, he had held in the carabineers, and in 1777 he
accompanied the _bailli_ (afterwards Cardinal L. R. E.) de Rohan to
Portugal. In the following year he visited Spain, and in 1780 and 1781
Sicily and the adjacent islands. Two months of the year 1782 were spent
in examining the geological structure of the Pyrenees, and in 1783 the
earthquake of Calabria induced him to go to Italy. The scientific
results of these excursions are given in his _Voyage aux iles de Lipari_
(1783); _Memoire sur le tremblement de terre de la Calabre_ (1784);
_Memoire sur les iles Ponces, et catalogue raisonne des produits de
l'Etna_ (1788) and other works. In 1789 and 1790 he busied himself with
an examination of the Alps, his observations on which form the subject
of numerous memoirs published in the _Journal de physique_. The mineral
_dolomite_, which was named after him, was described by Dolomieu in
1791. He returned to France in that year, bringing with him rich
collections of minerals. On the 14th of September 1792 the duc de la
Rochefoucauld, with whom he had been for twenty years on terms of the
closest intimacy, was assassinated at Forges, and Dolomieu retired with
the widow and daughter of the duke to their estate of Roche Guyon, where
he wrote several important scientific papers. The events of the 9th
Thermidor (July 27, 1794) having restored the country to some
tranquillity, Dolomieu recommenced his geological tours, and visited
various parts of France with which he had been previously unacquainted.
He was in 1796 appointed engineer and professor at the school of mines,
and was chosen a member of the Institute at the time of its formation.
At the end of 1797 he joined the scientific staff which in 1798
accompanied Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt. He had proceeded up the
Nile as far as Cairo when ill-health made his return to Europe
necessary, and on the 7th of March 1799 he set sail from Alexandria. His
ship proving unseaworthy put into Taranto, and as Naples was then at war
with France, all the French passengers were made prisoners. On the 22n