96 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



covefies were of immense value in scientific study. The academy early 

 became a kind of clearing house for European scientific students. 

 Through it its members could make their opinions known to the world. 

 The language they used and their literary skill rendered their writings 

 popular. It was a rule of the academy, adopted at its organization to 

 read every important scientific work published and report and discuss 

 its contributions to the subject which it treated. The discoveries which 

 members of the academy made, the instruments they used in their 

 studies, the improvements suggested in many of them, were freely com- 

 municated in letters to other learned societies. For example, a careful 

 description of the micrometer, invented by Picard and Auzout, was sent 

 by de la Hire to Mr. Oldenbourg, secretary of the Eoyal Society of 

 Great Britain. Correspondence was had with the society formed by a 

 company of men in one of the provinces who called themselves Les 

 curieux de la Nature, as well as with the society, Del Cimento, which 

 flourished at Florence under the patronage of Leopold de Medici. 



In this way the scientific world was united in a common aim, the 

 increase of knowledge, at a time when many of the nations were at war. 

 In this way it was possible for every discovery in science, every theory 

 advanced in book or essay, to be criticized and discussed by a body of 

 men who certainly were not inferior in mental endowment or in attain- 

 ment to any equal number in all Europe. It was natural, therefore, 

 that a book published under the auspices of the academy should receive 

 wide circulation and careful consideration. As the work of one of the 

 members of the academy was to a certain extent regarded as the work 

 of all, the academy was proud of such a book as " The History of 

 Plants " prepared by MM. du Clos and Dupont, with the aid of several 

 other academicians, and published in 1676. Its popularity may be in- 

 ferred from the fact that a second edition was called for three years 

 after its first appearance. There was, however, a danger into which, 

 during the later part of the seventeenth century, the academy fell, of 

 being too practical in its work. To gratify the king or his ministers 

 it gave a great deal of its time to the study of subjects which looked 

 to an increase of the revenues of the nation, rather than to an increase 

 of scientific knowledge. For example, much time was occupied in the 

 analysis of the mineral waters of France, in studying methods of im- 

 proving shipbuilding, the sailing of ships, in studying the principles 

 of architecture, of bridge building, and other subjects, which, though of 

 value to the country, were not those in which members of the academy 

 were supposed to be most deeply interested. 



One is interested also in studying the history and characteristics of 

 some of the men who became famous in connection with the academy, 

 du Hamel, the first secretary, though he had been a teacher of phi- 

 losophy as well as of geometry, was given his place because of his 



