TWO GIFTS TO FRENCH SCIENCE. 83 



working life by all so fortunate as to make his acquaintance. In an 

 interview I had with him a few weeks before his death, when his dis- 

 ease had already gained a strong hold upon him and he was nearly 

 speechless, he expressed himself freely concerning the future, al- 

 though he uttered every word with difficulty, and it was easy to see 

 that it caused him pain. The topic was science, and he wanted to 

 talk about it. 



When he was president of the Academy of Sciences, a few years 

 ago, he sacrificed himself to be equal to the honor that had been con- 

 ferred upon him. Speaking was already becoming very difficult to 

 his tired vocal organs. He made extreme efforts during the whole 

 year to fulfill his duty as president, and was punctual at the Monday 

 sessions to the end. 



In 1896, feeling the advance of age, he determined to make a 

 splendid present to the Academy of Sciences. The Due d'Aumale 

 had given Chantilly to the Institute. M. Antoine d'Abbadie gave 

 the Academy of Sciences his magnificent Chateau d'Abbadie, near 

 Hendaye, in the Basses-Pyrenees, on the coast of the Bay of Biscay. 

 The academy will enter upon the possession of this property, of three 

 hundred and ten hectares of land surrounding it, and of a capital pro- 

 ducing a revenue of forty thousand francs (eight thousand dollars) 

 after the death of Madame d'Abbadie. Only a single condition is 

 imposed on the gift. Having carried on his astronomical work at 

 Abbadia and begun there to catalogue the stars and study the varia- 

 tions of gravity, he asked in exchange for his incomparable gift that 

 the academy should complete in fifty years a catalogue of five hun- 

 dred thousand stars. The bureau of the academy dispatched its 

 president, M. Cornu, and its perpetual secretary, M. Bertrand, to 

 Abbadia as its representatives to express its gratitude to M. and 

 Madame d'Abbadie. The faith of the academy was pledged to con- 

 tinue the work begun by M. d'Abbadie, and a commemorative medal 

 was given him bearing on one side a portrait of Arago, and on the 

 other a minute of the gift and the thanks of the company. 



The Chateau of Abbadia will therefore be devoted to the de- 

 termination of the stars that are not yet catalogued. Probably, as 

 was the donor's thought, the religious orders or some of the secular 

 priests will perform this colossal labor. The chaplain of the chateau 

 has already given his service to the work. In any case, those who 

 may live in the chateau will have no cause to complain of their 

 home. Abbadia is a very interesting structure, built from plans 

 by Viollet-le-Duc, modified and carried out by the architect Duthoit, 

 with suggestions of the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. The ob- 

 servatory adjoins the chateau, which it antedates thirty years in 

 building, and has a meridian telescope and the essential astronomical 



