DUMOUCHEL, ETIENNE. — Astronomer, born in Monfort-l'Amaury (Scine-et-Oise, France) on 10 July 1773, he was a soldier in Napoleon’s army before entering the seminary of S. Sulpizio and subsequently the Society of the Fathers of the Faith; when the Society of Jesus was restored in 1814, he was received into it, like many of his companions. After teaching mathematics and astronomy in several colleges in France, he was called in 1824 to the Collegio Romano, to occupy the chair of astronomy and direct the observatory. He trained able disciples there, among them his successor, Fr. Francesco De Vico. He died while holding these positions on 15 January 1840.
BIBL.: Sommervogel, III, col. 278; anon., L'Università Gregoriana del Collegio Romano nel primo secolo dalla restituzione, Rome 1924, p. 156. Edmondo Lamalle