188 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



the problems resolved by the method which Biot had supposed to be 

 original with himself. When Biot read his paper to Laplace he was 

 cautioned against certain inferences at the end which Laplace thought 

 too remote. " Go not," he said, "beyond the results which you have 

 actually obtained. You will probably meet difficulties more serious 

 than you suppose : the actual state of analysis cannot furnish you the 

 means of surmounting them." And Biot struck out his hazardous 

 inferences. It now appeared that Laplace had been arrested by the 

 same obstacle which he had signalized to Biot. Hoping to surmount 

 it later, he had said nothing about it to any one, not even to Biot, 

 when he came to bring him his own work as if it were a novelty. 

 Biot does homage to the abnegation of Laplace in allowing him to 

 make his communication without the consciousness of having been 

 anticipated. Laplace would allow no allusion to be made to the trans- 

 action when Biot's paper was printed. No mention of it appears in 

 the records of the Academy. Not until after fifty years did Biot feel 

 at liberty to mention it. " This discovery, the first I had made, was 

 everything for me. It was little for him who had made so many. 

 Would he always have been so just ? Would he be so generous to a 

 rival ? I have no occasion to examine that here. He was all this 

 for me, and for many others who began their career in this way." 



Biot has described the country-seat of Laplace in Arcueil, adjoin- 

 ing that of the eminent chemist, BerthoUet. " It was acquired by 

 him in 1806, two years after the Emperor, Bonaparte, had promoted 

 him to the first dignities of the Senate. He bought it without having 

 seen it, on the report of Madame Laplace, being contented to know 

 that it was adjacent to that of his friend BerthoUet. A simple garden 

 wall separated them. BerthoUet had cut an opening in it and placed 

 a gate there before Laplace arrived. Then he came to receive him 

 with ceremony at the boundary of their domains, bringing the keys 

 which would give them free access to each other. It was in this de- 

 licious retreat that Laplace spent every day, every moment, of liberty 

 that his business left to him, — not to give himself to indolent repose, 

 but to continue, with unwearied passion, his great labors on mathe- 

 matical physics and the system of the world, emerging from these 

 meditations only to converse with his friend on physics and chemistry. 

 Here he also welcomed a retinue of zealous young men, whom he 

 condescended afterwards to call his colleagues, and who always were 

 proud of this association. Around him, in a more elevated sphere, 

 were seen continually BerthoUet, Lagrange, Cuvier, etc., to whom he 

 introduced his young proteges. Here Lai^lace died, on March 5, 1827. 



