OF ARTS AND SCIENCES: MAY 27, 1862. 17 



session of the French Academy of Sciences on the 18th of April, 1853, 

 was rendered memorable by the congratulations extended to Biot upon 

 the completion, only a few days before, of his Academical Jubilee. On 

 this occasion Thenard observed that it was a sufficiently comprehensive 

 tribute to Biot to say simply, " that it was fortunate for science that 

 Biot had been a member of the Academy of Sciences for 50 years." 



Although the senior member of the Academy, he remained in the 

 full exercise of his great intellectual powers to the last. During his 

 illness, which was not alarming at first, and which continued only eight 

 days before it suddenly terminated in death, he conversed with his 

 associates, and responded to the profound interest taken in his restora- 

 tion. When the fatal consummation of his malady, which at last mani- 

 fested itself as congestion of the lungs, was announced to the Acad- 

 emy by Duhamel, the minds of all were too much paralyzed even for 

 reminiscences or eulogies, much more for the election which had 

 brought them together, and an adjournment was immediately voted. 



The Institute of France made a large part of the life of Biot. He 

 came at length to look upon himself almost as the personification of it, 

 and spoke of its concerns with an authority conceded to no one else. 

 He was keenly alive to its privileges and its honor. In 1837, and again 

 in 1842, he expressed his misgivings as to the influence which the pub- 

 licity of its meetings and the weekly publication of the Comptes Ren- 

 dus would exert upon science. And again in 1858, in his Melanges 

 Scientijiques et Litteraires, he expressed the conviction that the Acad- 

 emy, by wishing to be known to the multitude, had lost in independence 

 what it had gained in vulgarity. " Dieu veuille que son avenir scien- 

 tifique ne se trouve pas profondement affecte par cet echange ! " 



Under the conviction, almost universal, that Biot was the most illus- 

 trious embodiment of the Academy and of science, the wish has been 

 expressed that his place in the section of Geometry should remain 

 vacant for one year, as happened after the death of Cuvier and Pois- 

 son. It was understood that Biot was ready to die as soon as the 

 geometer Bour had ripened into a fit candidate to succeed him. On 

 the death of Poinsot, Biot inquired of the mathematician Bertrand, 

 what young man promised the greatest future in the career of geomet- 

 rical analysis. Bertrand replied, " Bour. But he will not be of full 

 stature for three or four years." " Then," says Biot, " I need not hurry 

 myself." Soon after, Biot asked the same question, and received the 

 same answer again. In a short time Bour received a package contain- 

 VOL. VI. 3 



