Pierre Alexis De Ponson Du Terrail

Pierre Alexis De Ponson Du Terrail, viscount, a French novelist, born at Montmaur, near Grenoble, July 8,1829, died in Bordeaux, Jan. 30, 1871. He early became known as a sensational writer, and his novels, amounting to hundreds of volumes, had a large circulation among the populace, and have been translated into foreign languages. Among the best known of them are Les drames de Paris, comprising Les exploits de Bocambole and other stories relating to that personage, which he dramatized under the same title in conjunction with Anicet-Bourgeois.

Pierre Antoine Labouchere

Pierre Antoine Labouchere, a French painter, born in Nantes about 1818. He completed his studies under Delaroche, and became known as a historical painter, most of his works relating to Luther, Ulrich von Hutten, Melanchthon, and Erasmus. Among the more recent ones are " The Death of Luther " and "Charles V." (1866).

Pierre Antoine Lebrun

Pierre Antoine Lebrun, a French poet, born in Paris, Nov. 29,1785, died there in 1873. At an early age he wrote a tragedy entitled Cori-olan, and other poetical compositions, which secured for him the patronage of Francois de Neufchateau, one of the ministers of the directory. For his poem on the battle of Auster-litz he received a pension of 1,200 francs from the government. After the fall of the empire he celebrated the glories of Napoleon in a series of poems. In 1828 he succeeded Count Neufchateau as a member of the French academy. From 1831 to 1848 he was director of the royal printing establishment. For some time he was a member of the chamber of peers under Louis Philippe, and in 1853 became a member of the imperial senate. His complete works (5 vols., 1844-'63) include a number of dramas, of which his Marie Stuart is based upon Schiller's tragedy of. that name.

Pierre Augnste Pichon

Pierre Augnste Pichon, a French painter, born at Sorreze, Tarn, Dec. 6, 1805. He studied under Ingres, and became known as a painter of portraits and of historical and religious subjects. Among the latter are his " Communion," for the cathedral of Amiens, and " St. Memmie Kesuscitating a Child," for the government. His more recent productions comprise " Reception at Windsor by King Richard II." (1866), "The Immaculate Conception" (1868), "The Annunciation" (1869), and fine frescoes for prominent churches of Paris.

Pierre Boigier

Pierre Boigier, a French physicist, born at Le Croisic, Feb. 16, 1698, died Aug. 15, 1758.

After holding a professorship of hydrography at Havre, he succeeded Maupertuis as associate geometer of the academy of sciences, and was afterward made pensioned astronomer. He accompanied La Condamine and Godin on the great South American expedition to measure an arc of a meridian near the equator, and on his return he published Theorie de la figure de la terre (Paris, 1749). His other works are on optics, astronomy, and navigation. His principal claims to fame are his invention of the heliometer, and his foundation of the science of photometry, which is most fully expounded in his posthumous Traite d'optique sur la gradation de la lumiere, edited by La Caille (Paris, 1760).