PHILIPPE, LÉON GABRIEL:
French engineer; born at Paris Oct. 6, 1838; educated at the Ecole Polytechnique as an engineer of roads and bridges. He was a major of auxiliary engineers in the Army of the North during the Franco-Prussian war (1870-71). In 1876 he was a leader in the agitation for the depression of railroad crossings of the belt-line of Paris, and from 1881 until 1903 was in charge of the Department of Irrigation and Drainage under the minister of agriculture, undertaking various missions for the purpose of studying systems of irrigation in southern Algeria and in California. Philippe is now (1904) inspector-general of roads and bridges of the first class, and is also a commander of the Legion of Honor.
