SKETCH OF A. F. J. PLATEAU. 693 



of a larger number of stars than are really seen there. We 

 instinctively halt before the seemingly impossible task of find- 

 ing distinctive epithets for so many stars and asterisms; for, 

 after a few such qualifications as blazing, sparkling, pale, trem- 

 bling, etc. perhaps there are twenty of them in all we find that 

 words fail. 



We suggest this explanation tentatively, without attaching 

 particular importance to it. But we invite the serious attention 

 of archaeologists, and psychologists as well, to the singular phenom- 

 enon in mental evolution which the case of the pictured spheres 

 discloses. It derives interest from its unique character as a 

 nomenclature, and from its being reproduced, without exception, 

 in all the centers of evolution. There is evidently something in 

 the constant return of this process that comes from the very laws 

 of our nature. Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from 

 del et Terre. 







SKETCH OF A. F. J. PLATEAU. 



By SOPHIE BLEDSOE HEREICK. 



ANTOINE FERDINAND JOSEPH PLATEAU was born in 

 Brussels, October 14, 1801. He was brought up in the midst 

 of artistic influences, his father having been a flower-painter of 

 great talent. From his earliest childhood the boy exhibited not 

 only remarkable ability, but clearly manifested the bent of his 

 mind. When scarcely more than a baby he showed the greatest 

 delight in some physical experiments which were made in his 

 presence. 



In the days when Plateau was a child, very little attention was 

 paid to natural bent by parents in the selection of a life-work for 

 their children. The idea of the hereditary transmission of occu- 

 pation dominated all others. The boy, with no taste for art, was 

 devoted at an early age by his father to the study of painting. 



At fourteen years of age he became an orphan, and with his 

 two sisters was left to the care of his uncle M. Thirion, an 

 advocate. Soon after this his health, which was never strong, 

 showed signs of failure ; and his uncle sent the children to a 

 little village near Waterloo. It was upon the eve of the battle, 

 and the villagers took refuge in the depths of the forest of 

 Soignes, where for two days and nights they remained in the open 

 air, sleeping at night before a great fire, and living upon potatoes 

 which were baked in the cinders. 



The boy seemed scarcely conscious of the violent detonations 

 which shook the ground beneath them, he was so absorbed in his 

 favorite pastime of catching butterflies. The panic over, the vil- 



