n6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in the chemical section, in place of M. Pelouzet. In 1878 he received 

 the Faraday medal from the English Royal Society, and was elected a 

 member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. 



Professor Wurtz presided at the meeting of the French Associ- 

 ation for the Progress of Science which was held at Lille in 1874, 

 and delivered the opening address, on the subject of the " Theory of 

 Atoms in the General Conception of the Universe." In this address 

 he revealed a catholicity of spirit, including all men of every nation 

 and creed, and every branch of science, in a community of interest 

 and privilege in the advancement of knowledge, and a poetic capacity 

 of temperament, to which his dry chemical researches gave few oppor- 

 tunities of expression. After sketching Bacon's plan, or dream, for 

 the universal exploration of the earth and the cosmic forces, he said : 

 " Two centuries and a half ago the conception of Bacon was regarded 

 as a noble Utopia ; to-day it is a reality. That magnificent pro- 

 gramme which he then drew out is ours, gentlemen ; ours not in the 

 narrow sense of the word, for I extend this programme to all Avho, in 

 modern times and in all countries, give themselves to the search for 

 truth, to all workers in science, humble or great, obscure or famous, 

 who form in reality in all parts of the globe, and without distinction 

 of nationality, that vast association which was the dream of Francis 

 Bacon. Yes, science is now a neutral field, a commonwealth, placed 

 in a. serene region, far above the political arena, inaccessible, I wish I 

 could say, to the strifes of parties ; in a word, this property is the 

 patrimony of humanity." Having reviewed the recent progress in the 

 sciences of chemistry, physics, and physical astronomy, and spoken of 

 the kinetic theory, he added that these sciences " teach us that the 

 worlds which people infinite space are made like our own system, and 

 the great universe is all movement, co-ordinated movement. But, 

 new and marvelous fact, this harmony of the celestial spheres of which 

 Pythagoras spoke, and which a modern poet has celebrated in immor- 

 tal verse, is met with in the world of the infinitely little. There, also, 

 all is co-ordinated movement, and these atoms, whose accumulation 

 forms matter, have never any repose ; a grain of dust is full of in- 

 numerable multitudes of material unities, each of which is agitated by 

 movements. All vibrates in the little world, and this universal rest- 

 lessness of matter, this ' atomic music,' to continue the metaphor of 

 the ancient philosopher, is like the harmony of worlds ; and is it not 

 true that the imagination is equally bewildered and the spirit equally 

 troubled by the spectacle of the illimitable immensity of the universe, 

 and by the consideration of the millions of atoms which people a drop 

 of water ? " The address concluded with the words : " Such is the 

 order of nature ; and, as Science penetrates it further, she brings to 

 light both the simplicity of the means set at work and the infinite 

 variety of the results. Thus, through the corner of the veil we have 

 been permitted to raise, she enables us to see both the harmony and 



