16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



published in a separate volume. To him also we are indebted for the 

 discovery of the cause of the weakness of hollow cylinders when ex- 

 posed to an internal pressure, as in the hydrostatic press. His dis- 

 covery of the means of correcting the local attraction on the compasses 

 of ships brought him into great notoriety ; he received the Copley 

 medal, and was elected on the Council of the Royal Society. The 

 Board of Longitude conferred upon him the rewards provided for 

 useful nautical discoveries, and he was likewise placed by government 

 upon several royal commissions connected with public works, while 

 many foreign governments and societies bestowed their honors upon 

 him. When at length, in 1847, he retired from the Royal Military 

 Academy, the government awarded to him the full income of the pro- 

 fessorship for the remainder of his life, in consideration of his eminent 

 services. 



In his person and manners, Mr. Barlow presented a fine specimen 

 of the thorough, straightforward Englishman. His simple and up- 

 right character and his kind and cheerful disposition endeared him 

 to all who were honored with his acquaintance. 



Jean Baptiste Biot was born in Paris, on the 21st of April, 1774. 

 He died on the 3d of February, 1862, at the advanced age of nearly 

 eighty-eight years. 



Having studied in the College of Louis-le-Grand, Biot joined the 

 army. After he left the Artillery service, which he had first chosen, 

 Biot entered the Polytechnic School, and then became Professor in the 

 Central School at Beauvois. He was Professor of Physics in the 

 College of France from the year 1800, and Professor of Astronomy 

 in the Faculty of Sciences in Paris from 1809. He had been a mem- 

 ber of the Institute since 1803, and of the Bureau of Longitudes since 

 1806. 



Biot enjoyed the honor, which had fallen to no one besides, of be- 

 lono-inf to three of the classes of the Institute, viz. the French Acad- 

 emy, the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, and the Acad- 

 emy of Sciences. In the Academy of Sciences, of which he was chosen 

 a member at the age of twenty-seven, Biot was assigned to the section 

 of Geometry. For, although he is most familiarly known to the pres- 

 ent generation as a physicist, he began his career as a mathematician 

 and astronomer. No one in France was so much at home with the 

 Mecanique Celeste of Laplace, all the computations in which he re- 

 peated, besides making annotations on the most difficult passages. The 



