SKETCH OF CHARLES ADOLPHE WURTZ. 119 



one of the " International Scientific Series," and fits in well with what 

 is perhaps the most important work of the author's life ; for it records 

 the development and present position of a doctrine which he has had 

 as large a part as, if not a larger part than, any other man in bringing 

 to the shape in which it is now generally received by chemists. It 

 embraces an historical introduction, containing a concise, accurate, and 

 complete history of the theory of atoms from the times of the Greek 

 philosophers and Lucretius, and from the revival of the doctrine by 

 Dalton to the present time. A second part includes a full exj)osition 

 of the theory as it is now held and applied. It is described, by the 

 critic in " Nature " from whom we have quoted, as " at once a scien- 

 tific treatise and an artistic work, . . . marked with a distinct indi- 

 viduality and self-completeness," and as conveying a sharp impression, 

 "without making any great sacrifice of accuracy." 



All of Professor Wurtz's later works are characterized by the 

 marks of his strong faith in his own conception of the atomic theory, 

 and for this he has been criticised perhaps by some one whose theory 

 is a little different as too much inclined to treat theoretical considera- 

 tions as identical with facts, and as, seemingly, supposing facts to be 

 explained when they are only stated in the language of his theory. 

 He has himself given an illustration of the manner in which this may 

 be brought about, by explaining in his Faraday lecture that, whenever 

 we attempt to make well-observed facts and their immediate conse- 

 quences the only certain things in the physical sciences the basis of 

 any general theory, " hypothetical data are apt to mix themselves up 

 with our deductions." 



Professor Wurtz has been President of the Academy of Sciences in 

 Paris since 1881. His merits have been recognized by the French 

 Government by the bestowal of the decoration of the Legion of Honor 

 in 1850 and by promotion to the rank of officer in 1863, and to that of 

 commander on the occasion of his acting as a member of the French 

 section of the International Jury at the Great Exhibition in London, 

 in 1869. In July, 1881, he was appointed a Senator for life in the 

 French Senate, by a large majority, and became the third member of 

 the Academy of Sciences who was in the enjoyment of a seat in that 

 body, his two scientific colleagues being M. Robin and M. Dupuy de 

 Lome. 



