M. SAINTE-CLAIRE DEVILLE. 547 



atomic theory not excepted, to be a superfluous speculation. His 

 methods, his apparatus, and the few fundamental principles he has 

 enunciated, were all alike simple. He was much beloved by his stu- 

 dents, and was devoted to them. Though the labor of drilling the 

 pupils of the Normal School year after year in the same elementary 

 principles must have been irksome in the extreme, he was always kind 

 and just, always ready with counsel and help. His proverbial tender- 

 ness toward candidates in the public examinations is illustrated by an 

 anecdote : 



" Let us see, monsieur," he asks ; " of what is water composed ? 

 . . . Of o ?" 



" Xygen," the pupil replied. 



"And what else? ... Of hy ?" 



" Drogen," added the candidate. 



" That is right, monsieur. Thank you." 



M. Pasteur describes him as small in stature, with a high forehead, 

 lively eyes, and an impulsive walk ; a man who might have compared 

 the beating of the blood in his veins to that of the waves in the river 

 Rhone. 



M. Deville's chief works include his contributions to the " Annales 

 de Chimie et de Physique " concerning the properties of aluminium and 

 his experiments with it ; a comprehensive work on the same subject 

 (" De 1' Aluminium, ses Proprietes, sa Fabrication"), published in 1859 ; 

 a report on the fusion of steel in the reverberating furnace without 

 using a crucible (1862) ; and his large work on the metallurgy of plat- 

 inum and the metals that accompany it (1863). Among his more 

 important contributions to the Academy of Sciences are papers on the 

 three molecular states of silicium and a memorandum on the produc- 

 tion of high temperatures. 



M. Pasteur relates that at one time, when he thought that he him- 

 self was about to die, M. Deville rallied him by telling him that he 

 must live to pronounce his funeral address. The duty was beautifully 

 fulfilled by M. Deville's fellow-worker in the fields of investigation. 

 On the 5th of July last, M. Pasteur pronounced an affectionate funeral 

 eulogy on his deceased colleague, beginning with the appropriate apos- 

 trophe : " Thy sympathetic features, thy gayety of spirits, thy frank 

 smile, the sound of thy voice, still go with us and live among us. 

 The ground that bears us, the air we breathe, the elements which thou 

 didst love to question, and which were always so docile in answering 

 thee, could tell us of thee if there were need of it. The entire world 

 knows the services thou hast rendered to science, and, beyond the 

 mountains and the seas, every man who is interested in the progress of 

 human thought wears mourning for thee." 



