Figuier, Louis (Guillaume) (1819-1894)

French chemist and writer on occult subjects. He was born at Montpellier, France, in 1819, where his uncle Pierre Figuier was professor of chemistry at the School of Pharmacy. Louis, having taken his doctorate in medicine and having completed his postgraduate study in chemistry at the laboratory of Balard in Paris, was made professor of chemistry at the same school in his hometown. In 1853 he exchanged this post for a similar one in the School of Pharmacy of Paris. Many honorary degrees in science and medicine were conferred upon him by various faculties during his career.

In 1857 he left teaching and devoted himself to writing, specializing in the popularizing of science, mainly physiology and medical chemistry. He published many notable works and was equally distinguished for his prodigious output and literary quality. Those works having a bearing on occult matters include Le Lendemain de la mort, ou La Vie future selon la science (1872, dealing with the transmigration of souls), L' Alchimie et les Alchimistes (1860), Histoire du merveilleux dans les temps modernes (1860-74), and Les Bonheurs d' outre tombe (1892). In 1889 he published a volume of dramas and comedies, La Science au Thèatre. Figuier's four-volume Histoire du merveilleux was a well-documented study of the Jansenist convulsionaires, the religious revival of the Cevennes, the divining rod, animal magnetism, table turning, mediums, and spirits. He died in Paris in 1894.

Sources:

Figuier, Louis. The Day After Death, or, Our Future Life, According to Science. London: R. Bentley, 1874.