THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, PARIS 93 



and de la Voge. Pensions or salaries were provided for the mem- 

 bers of the academy, who were expected to devote their whole time 

 to study and experiment. There was a special fund in addition for 

 experiment. That these men of science might work to the best advan- 

 tage it was agreed that physicists should meet on Saturdays, mathe- 

 maticians and astronomers on Wednesdays. General meetings were 

 held every month at whicli rejwrts were read by Secretary du Hamel 

 of all that had been done. These were in Latin, a language in which 

 the secretary had great proficiency. The meetings were held at first 

 in the Eoyal Library, but were soon removed to the Louvre, where, 

 save during the interval caused by the revolution, they continued to be 

 held till 1806, when the Institute found a permanent home in the 

 Mazarin Palace. As was said in a previous article, the Paris Academy 

 of Sciences has been regarded in many ways as the most important 

 scientific institution on the continent, if not in all Europe. It has 

 been the model after which many other scientific academies have been 

 formed. Its 68 members are now divided into eleven sections. Five 

 of these sections, viz., those of geometry, mechanics, astronomy, geog- 

 raphy and navigation, belong to the mathematical department of the 

 academy; six of them, those of chemistry, mineralogy, botany, rural 

 economy, anatomy and zoology, medicine and surgery, to the depart- 

 ment of physics. Care has been taken from the first to fill each section 

 of the academy with the best available men, and, although some first- 

 class men have not found their way into its ranks, yet comparatively 

 few of them have been left without its honors. 



It is exceedingly interesting as well as instructive to look over the 

 quartos which contain a description of the work of the academy prior 

 to 1700. Kominally eleven in number, yet as volume three is in three 

 parts and volume seven in two, there are fourteen volumes to be exam- 

 ined. They furnish a clear idea of the state of scientific knowledge at 

 the time when the studies reported were made, and enable one to trace 

 the progress of science in its various departments through more than 

 a generation. In Volumes I. and II. we have a history of the academy 

 with the names of its members prior to 1734 and a list of their pub- 

 lications. Nothing is more attractive to a real student in all these 

 volumes than this list of names and publications. Volume III. con- 

 tains descriptions of the animals which the academy secured for dissec- 

 tion. Most of them are common animals. The cuts which represent 

 them are fine specimens of the art of the time. A picture of the 

 animal as it appears in life is first given, then follows a cut of the 

 skeleton and such other parts of the body as the dissector cared to 

 exhibit. In the text a description is given of the animal as it ordi- 

 narily appears, with all that can be learned about it from classical and 

 other writers. This is followed by a detailed description of its con- 



