LALANDE, JosephJérôme Lefrançais de (1732- 1807), a noted astronomer, was born at Bourg (department of Ain), July 11, 1732. His parents, who were in easy circumstances, sent him to Paris to study the law; but the accident of lodging in the Hôtel Cluny, where Delisle had his observatory, determined his astronomical vocation, and he became the zealous and favoured pupil of both Delisle and Lemonnier. He, however, completed his legal studies, and was on the point of returning to Bourg to practise there as an advocate, when Lemonnier obtained permission to send him, in his own place, to Berlin, for the purpose of making observations on the lunar parallax in concert with those of Lacaille at the Cape of Good Hope. The successful execution of his task procured for him, before he was twenty-one, admission to the Academy of Berlin, and the post of adjunct astronomer to that of Paris. He now devoted himself to the improvement of the planetary theory, publishing in 1759 a corrected edition of Halley’s tables, with ahistory of the celebrated comet whose return in that year he had aided Clairaut to calculate. In 1762, Delisle resigned in his favour the chair of astronomy in the Collège de France, the duties of which were discharged by Lalande with éclat during forty-six years. His house became an astronomical seminary, and amongst his pupils were Delambre, Piazzi, Mechain, and his own nephew, Michel Lalande. By his publications in connexion with the transit of 1769 he won great and, in some respects, deserved fame. But his love of notoriety fully equalled his scientific zeal, and earned for him as much ridicule as his impetuous temper did hostility. These faults were partially outweighed by his generosity and benevolence. A strict adherence to hygienic rules long preserved ...