He was educated at a local Jesuit college before going to apprentice under apothecary Janson.
Around 1772 he began to work in the marly-le-Roi laboratory of the royal physician Joseph-Marie-François de Lassone.
He examined reversible reactions, following the work of Baumé, and noted that potassium sulphate could be broken by hydrochloric acid.
He also noted that the concentrations of materials could alter reaction directions and rates in 1788.
[3] He published Mémoire sur la formation du salpêtre (1799).