died in
Paris on the 14th of March 1696.

In the _Journal des savants_ for 1843 are several papers on Domat by
Victor Cousin, giving much information not otherwise accessible.

DOMBES, a district of eastern France, formerly part of the province of
Burgundy, now comprised in the department of Ain, and bounded W. by the
Saone, S. by the Rhone, E. by the Ain and N. by the district of Bresse.
The region forms an undulating plateau with a slight slope towards the
north-west, the higher ground bordering the Ain and the Rhone attaining
an average height of about 1000 ft. The Dombes is characterized by an
impervious surface consisting of boulder clay and other relics of
glacial action. To this fact is due the large number of rain-water
pools, varying for the most part from 35 to 250 acres in size which
cover some 23,000 acres of its total area of 282,000 acres. These pools,
artificially created, date in many cases from the 15th century, some to
earlier periods, and were formed by landed proprietors who in those
disturbed times saw a surer source of revenue in fish-breeding than in
agriculture. Disease and depopulation resulted from this policy and at
the end of the 18th century the Legislative Assembly decided to reduce
the area of the pools which then covered twice their present extent.
Drainage works were continued, roads cut, and other improvements
effected during the 19th century. Large numbers of fish, principally
carp, pike and tench are still reared profitably, the pools being
periodically dried up and the ground cultivated.

The Dombes (Lat. _Dumbae_) once formed part of the kingdom of Arles. In
the 11th century, when the kingdom began to break up, the northern part
of the Dombes came under the power of the lords of Bauge, and in 1218,
by the marriage of Marguerite de Bauge with Humbert IV. of Beaujeu,
passed to the lords of Beaujeu. The southern portion was held in
succession by the lords of Villars and of Thoire. Its lords took
advantage of the excommunication of the emperor Frederick II. to assert
their complete independence of the Empire. In 1400, Louis II., duke of
Bourbon, acquired the northern part of the Dombes, together with the
lordship of Beaujeu, and two years later bought the southern part from
the sires de Thoire, forming the whole into a new sovereign principality
of the Dombes, with Trevoux as its capital. The principality was
confiscated by King Francis I. in 1523, along with the other posse