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
