TEE OLD ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, PARIS 173 



the decimal system which was afterwards adopted. Meanwhile the 

 work of the academy was supposed to go on without interruption. But 

 its sessions could not be held regularly. Some feared to attend them, 

 Bailly and Condorcet did not venture to show themselves at these 

 meetings. Yet Lagrange, Laplace, de Jussieu, Desfontaines, Adam- 

 son, Haiiy, Berthollet, Coulomb, Borda, Bossuet, Portal, Thomasin, 

 Daubenton and Lavoisier were usually in their places at every session 

 of the academy. Lalande acted as secretary. November 14, 1792, 

 Chanfort moved that the sessions of the academy be suspended. This 

 motion did not carry, though a similar motion passed November 26. 

 The last meeting, however, was held December 21, at which it was voted 

 to adjourn for Christmas. Although the academy did not meet as an 

 academy, the ministers of the government continued to ask its advice 

 as late as January, 1793. A Commission of Public Instruction sought 

 its opinion as to a system of weights and measures. The opinion was 

 given by Borda, Laplace, and Lagrange. The report which these men 

 made is the last report which appears on the records of the Old Acad- 

 emy. Yet many of its members wrought as patriots for their country- 

 Fourcroy discovered a new method for making saltpeter, Guylonde, 

 Morceau and Berthollet worked on steel, Monge gave his attention to 

 improving the foundries, and A. C. Perrier to forges. August 6, 1793, 

 the Convention sent to the academy, which it suppressed August 8, a 

 request for its opinion as to the value of money. August 14, 1793, 

 Lakenal, as one of the officers of the new government, issued a decree 

 requiring the members of the academy to meet in their old place and be 

 ready to answer any question which might be sent them. But these 

 meetings were irregular and of little value. The academy had been 

 proscribed as the enemy of the Republic. During the four years from 

 1789 to 1793 half of the members of the Old Academy died. Many of 

 them had lived in poverty, all of them in fear. October 25, 1793, the 

 Convention ordered the establishment of the Institut, of which the 

 Academy of Science might form one of its classes. It was indeed its 

 first class. It was intended to serve the Republic by its practical 

 knowledge of mathematics and physics. Nothing was done at this 

 time toward establishing an Academy of Moral and Political Science, 

 or of Literature and the Fine Arts. These were to come later. This 

 order, which was secured through the influence of Lakenal, was, as a 

 matter of fact, carrying out the order of the king as issued April 23, 

 1783. All science was united in two great classes, physical and mathe- 

 matical. By the Republic these classes were made sections of the 

 Institut. In each of these sections there were three pensionaires, and 

 three associates. In 1803 another reorganization took place and in the 

 new Institut, the Academy of Science was given the third place. Its 

 further history is the history of a section of the French Institute. 



