VILLERMET, Jules Guillaume Ferdinand de (reel-air-may), French scientist, born in Landerneau in 1802; died in La Union, Salvador, in 1859. He held for several years an office in the colonial department at Paris, and in 1854 was given a mission to Mexico and Central America. After exploring southern Mexico and Lower California, where he suffered great hardships, he tried to enter Sonora, but was prevented by the political condition of the state. He visited Panama, Costa Rica, and Salvador, studied the volcanoes of Quezaltenango, Izalco, and San Miguel, and prepared a valuable geological chart of Central America. He died from yellow fever just before leaving for France. Villermet's explorations were continued by the scientific expedition of Auguste Dolfus and Eugene de Montserrat, and, from his notes and the materials he had collected, his brother published "Voyage dans le San Salvador, suivi d'une etude sur les volcans de l'Amerique Centrale" (2 vols., Geneva, 1860).