1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica articles with no significant updates

Octave Pirmez (1832 – May 1883) was a Belgian author born in Châtelineau.

Alphonse Francois Renard (27 September 1842 – 9 July 1903), Belgian geologist and petrographer, was born at Ronse, in East Flanders, on 27 September 1842. He was educated for the church of Rome, and from 1866 to 1869 he was superintendent at the college de la Paix, Namur.In 1870 he entered the Jesuit Training College at the old abbey of Maria Laach in the Eifel, and there, while engaged in studying philosophy and science, he became interested in the geology of the district, and especially in the volcanic rocks. Thenceforth he worked at chemistry and mineralogy, and qualified himself for those petrographical researches for which he was distinguished.In 1874 he became professor of chemistry and geology in the college of the Belgian Jesuits at Leuven, a few years later he was appointed one of the curators of the Royal Natural History Museum at Brussels, and in 1882 he relinquished his post at Louvain. In 1888 he was chosen professor of geology at the University of Ghent, and retained the post until the close of his life. Meanwhile, he had been ordained priest in 1877, and had intended to enter the Society of Jesus. He was known as the Abbé Renard; but, as remarked by Sir A. Geikie, as years passed, the longing for mental freedom grew ever stronger, until at last it overmastered all the traditions and associations of a lifetime, and he finally separated himself from the church of Rome.His first work, written in conjunction with Charles-Louis-Joseph-Xavier de la Vallée-Poussin (1827–1904), was the Mémoire sur les caractères minéralogiques et stratigraphiques des roches dues plutoniennes de la Belgique et de l'Ardenne française (1876). In later essays and papers he dealt with the structure and mineral composition of many igneous and sedimentary rocks, and with the phenomena of metamorphism in Belgium and other countries. In acknowledgment of his work, the Bigsby Medal was awarded to him in 1885 by the Geological Society of London. Still more important were his later researches connected with the Challenger Expedition. The various rock specimens and oceanic deposits were submitted to him for examination in association with Sir John Murray, and their detailed observations were embodied in the Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger Deep Sea Deposits (1891). The more striking additions to our knowledge included the detection and description of cosmic dust, which as fine rain slowly accumulates on the ocean floor; the development of zeolitic crystals on the sea-bottom at temperatures of 32 °F (0 °C) and under; and the distribution and mode of occurrence of manganese nodules and of phosphatic and glauconite deposits on the bed of the ocean. Renard died at Brussels on 9 July 1903.Rue Alphonse Renard, in western Ixelles, is named in his honor. In addition, the mineral renardite was named in his honor in 1928.

François Laurent (8 July 1810 – 11 February 1887) was a Belgian historian and jurisconsult.

Edmond Hébert (12 June 1812 – 4 April 1890), French geologist, was born at Villefargau, Yonne.
He was educated at the College de Meaux, Auxerre, and at the École Normale in Paris. In 1836 he became professor at Meaux, in 1838 demonstrator in chemistry and physics at the École Normale, and in 1841 sub-director of studies at that school and lecturer on geology. In 1857 the degree of D. es Sc. was conferred upon him, and he was appointed professor of geology at the Sorbonne.There he was eminently successful as a teacher, and worked with great zeal in the field, adding much to the knowledge of the Jurassic and older strata. He devoted, however, special attention to the subdivisions of the Cretaceous and Tertiary formations in France, and to their correlation with the strata in England and in southern Europe.To him we owe the first definite arrangement of the Chalk into palaeontological zones (see "Table" in Geol. Hag., 1869, p. 200). During his later years he was regarded as the leading geologist in France.He was elected a member of the Académie des sciences in 1877, Commander of the Legion of Honour in 1885, and he was three times president of the Geological Society of France. He died in Paris on 4 April 1890.

Étienne Marin Mélingue (1807–1875) was a French actor, sculptor and painter.
He was born in Caen, the son of a volunteer of 1792, He early went to Paris and obtained work as a sculptor on the church of the Madeleine, but his passion for the stage soon led him to join a strolling company of comedians. Finally chance gave him an opportunity to show his talents, and at the Porte Saint Martin he became the popular interpreter of romantic drama of the type popularized by Alexandre Dumas, père.One of his greatest successes was as Benvenuto Cellini, in which he displayed his ability both as an actor and as a sculptor, really modelling before the eyes of the audience a statue of Hebe. He sent a number of statuettes to the various exhibitions, notably one of Gilbert Louis Duprez as William Tell. Mélingue's wife, Théodorine Thiesset (1813–1886), was the actress selected by Victor Hugo to create the part of Guanhumara in Burgraves at the Comédie-Française, where she remained ten years. He created the part of D'Artagnan in The Youth of The Musketeers and The Musketeer (a dramatization of 20 Years After by Dumas) and also the part of Lagardere in Feval and Anciet-Bourgeois's Hunchback.

François Jules Edmond Got (1 October 1822, in Lignerolles, Orne – 21 March 1901, in Passy, a district in Paris) was a French stage actor, comedian, and opera librettist.
Edmond Got entered the Conservatoire in 1841, winning the second prize for comedy that year and the first in 1842. After a year of military service he made his debut at the Comédie Française on 17 July 1844, as Alexis in Les Héritiers and Mascarelles in Les Précieuses ridicules. He was immediately admitted pensionnaire, and became sociétaire in 1850. By special permission of the emperor in 1866 he played at the Odéon in Emile Augier's Contagion. His golden jubilee at the Théâtre Français was celebrated in 1894, and he made his final appearance the year after.Got was a fine representative of the grand style of French acting, and was much admired in England as well as in Paris. He wrote two librettos for operas by Edmond Membrée (1820-1892), François Villon (1857) and L'Esclave (1874). In 1881, he was decorated with the cross of the Legion of Honour.

Albert Schwegler (10 February 1819 – 5 January 1857) was a German philosopher and Protestant theologian.

Charles Auguste Frossard (26 April 1807 – 25 August 1875) was a French general.
He entered the army from the École polytechnique in 1827, being posted to the engineers. He took part in the siege of Rome in 1849 and in that of Sevastopol in 1855, after which he was promoted general of brigade. Four years later as general of division, and chief of engineers in the Italian campaign, he attracted the particular notice of the emperor Napoleon III, who made him in 1867 chief of his military household and governor to the prince imperial.He was one of the superior military authorities who in this period 1866-1870 foresaw and endeavoured to prepare for the inevitable war with Germany, and at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War he was given by Napoleon the choice between a corps command and the post of chief engineer at headquarters. He chose the command of the II corps. On 6 August 1870 he held the position of Spicheren against the Germans until the arrival of reinforcements for the latter and the non-appearance of the other French corps compelled him to retire. After this he took part in the battles around Metz, where he distinguished himself at Mars-la-Tour and Gravelotte. He then participated with his corps in the Siege of Metz and was involved in the surrender of Bazaine's army. General Frossard published in 1872 a Rapport sur les operations du 2 corps. He died at Cháteau-Villain (Haute-Marne).

Auguste Victor Laurent Casimir-Perier (20 August 1811, in Paris – 6 June 1876) was a French diplomat and political leader. He was the son of Prime Minister Casimir Pierre Perier and the father of President Jean Casimir-Perier.
He entered the diplomatic service, being attached successively to the London, Brussels and St Petersburg embassies and in 1843 became minister plenipotentiary at Hanover.In 1846 he resigned from the service to enter the legislature as deputy for the département of Seine, a constituency which he exchanged for another one in the département of Aube after the Revolution of 1848.On the establishment of the Second Empire he retired temporarily from public life, and devoted himself to economic questions of which he published a series of works, notably Les Finances et la politique (1863), dealing with the interaction of political institutions and finance. He contested Grenoble unsuccessfully in 1863 against the imperial candidate, Casimir Royer; and failed again for Aube in 1869.In 1871 he was returned by three départements to the National Assembly, and elected to sit for Aube. He joined the Centre gauche parliamentary group. He was minister of the interior for a few months from 11 October 1871 to 6 February 1872, and his retirement deprived Thiers of one of the strongest elements in his cabinet. He also joined the short-lived ministry of May 1873 (18 to 25 May). He consistently opposed all efforts in the direction of a monarchical restoration, but on the definite constitution of the republic became a senator for life, declining Mac-Mahon's invitation to form the first cabinet under the new constitution. He died in Paris.

Enrico Cialdini, Duca di Gaeta (10 August 1811 – 8 September 1892) was an Italian soldier, politician and diplomat.