262 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



a misfortune is mine, God ! If I had lost two young foals, at least 

 their hides would have been left to me." 



And the children, standing by the open grave of their father, cry 

 out : " O father, we shall never forget thee ! Take our thanks for all 

 the benefits received during thy lifetime, as well as for the earthly 

 goods thou hast left behind." Blackwood 's Magazine. 



SKETCH OF JULES JAMIN. 



M JULES JAMIN was a man of many talents. He held a high 

 position in the scientific circles of his time, and was equally 

 eminent as a teacher and lecturer ; he was also well known in litera- 

 ture ; and he achieved respectable success in some of the fine arts. 

 He was able to acquit himself creditably in all this variety in occu- 

 pations, without sacrificing the excellence of his scientific work ; and 

 it is on the last that his fame is founded. 



Jules Celestin Jamin was born at Termes in the Ardennes, 

 August 30, 1818, and died in Paris, February 12, 1886. His father 

 had served in the volunteers of the French Revolution, had gained the 

 rank of captain, and had been decorated at the battle of Friedland. 

 The boy was taught in the village school of Vouziers, and afterward 

 in the college at Rheims, where he gained nine prizes in the first year, 

 and received in 1838 the prize of honor in the competition between the 

 colleges of Paris and the departments. In the same year he entered 

 the Superior Normal School, and in 1841 received the first prize in 

 the examinations of physics. From this institution he went to the 

 college at Caen as a teacher of Physics ; afterward to the College 

 Bourbon (now Lycee Condorcet), and in 1844 to the College Louis-le- 

 Grand. In 1847 he received the doctorate of Physical Science for a 

 thesis on the reflection of light by the surface of metals. 



The precision, elegance, and solidity of his instruction, say Jamin's 

 foreign biographers, and the value of his scientific work, designated 

 him for some superior professorship. So, in 1852, he was elected Pro- 

 fessor of Physics at the Polytechnic School, where he lectured with 

 success till 1881. In 1863 he obtained the chair of Physics in the 

 Faculty of Sciences, where, by the extreme lucidity of his demonstra- 

 tions, he achieved a great success. When M. Duruy, the Minister of 

 Instruction at the time, founded the public lectures of the Sorbonne, 

 he committed the inauguration of the course to M. Jamin ; and the 

 opening was, according to M. Jurien de la Graviere's eulogy in the 

 Academy of Sciences, an event which " aroused the enthusiasm of the 

 multitude." Here Jamin attracted a great number of eager listeners, 

 and displayed, says "Nature," his admirable talent of exposition, as 

 well as his great power of simplifying the most difficult questions, 



