O. MISCELLANEOUS. 679 



whole conception being noble and spirited. There is also a 

 fresco representing a meeting of the Academy of Sciences. 

 In the tribune, immediately around the statue of Galileo, 

 three frescos represent three notable events of his life. In 

 the first he is seen intently watching the swinging of a lamp 

 in the cathedral of Pisa; in the second we see him in the act 

 of presenting his telescope to the Venetian Senate ; in the 

 third he appears as an old man in his house at Arcetri, dic- 

 tating the geometrical demonstration of the laws of falling 

 bodies to his disciples. On the arch above the statue, on a 

 blue ground, are very effectively rej^resented the astronom- 

 ical discoveries of Galileo, while on the pillars of the arch 

 bass-reliefs represent his terrestrial discoveries. Beneath the 

 frescos and around the statue are niches containins: some of 

 Galileo's instruments. Immediately around the statue are 

 the busts of his most celebrated followers. There are also in 

 the hall six cases containing old apparatus belonging to the 

 latter part of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the 

 sixteenth century. 



The memorial is altogether Avorthy of the man and of the 

 fine taste of the Florentines. It is perhaps the only scientific 

 sanctuary that exists. 12 A, 1873, 329. 



INFLUEXCING THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



Professor De Candolle has lately published a work relating 

 to the statistics of men of science, in which he takes into con- 

 sideration those who have been not merely learned, but who 

 have given a powerful impulse to the advancement of science, 

 limiting his attention, however, to those whose labors have 

 been in the line of mathematical, physical, and natural sci- 

 ences. He takes for the basis of his inquiry the three great 

 academies of Europe, namely, the Royal Society of London 

 and the Academies of Science of Paris and Berlin, and makes 

 a comparison between the number of scientific leaders de- 

 veloped in the several countries in connection with these in- 

 stitutions, and inquires into the causes which may have pro- 

 duced the differences which he narrates. The influences 

 Avhich he finds to be most powerful in advancing science, by 

 increasing the number of those who prosecute it in a proper 

 spirit, are, first, a well-organized system of instruction, inde- 

 pendent of 23arties, tending to awaken research and to assist 



