18 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



ing a rare copy of the works of Lagrange, which had never been collect- 

 ed, but which were scattered in Memoirs of different Academies, with 

 this inscription : " Presented by Lagrange to Condorcet, by Condorcet 

 to Lacroix, by Lacroix to Biot, by Biot to Bour, by Bour to ." 



Biot's long and laborious life furnishes one of the most brilliant illus- 

 trations of science. He had no higher earthly ambition than to dis- 

 cover new laws of nature. He was not ambitious, as Arago, to add 

 political distinction to his scientific honors. In 1804 he prevailed 

 upon the Listitute not to vote for Bonaparte's elevation to the throne. 

 But his conscience as a man of science revolted at the thought of wast- 

 ing any time in the distractions and jealousies inseparable from political 

 preferment. As the Abbe Moigno adds : " L'aureole de la science lui 

 paraissait infiniment preferable k l'aureole de la politique." 



The most elaborate works of Biot are, — 1. The Trait e de Geometrie 

 Analytique, 1802 ; 2. The Physique Experimentale, in 4 volumes, 1816 ; 

 3. The Precis de Physique, in 2 volumes, 1817 ; 4. The Traite d'As- 

 tronomie, in 3 volumes, 1805 ; and afterwards in 1850 in 6 volumes, with 

 an Atlas. The latter labor he finished at the age of seventy-six, with- 

 out the aid of younger collaborators. Besides these most important trea- 

 tises, he published in 1803, Essai sur VHistoire des Sciences pendant la 

 Revolution Frangaise ; Relation d'un Voyage fait dans le Departement 

 de V Orne pour constater la Realiti d'un Meteore observe a VAigle ; Re- 

 cherches sur les Refractions Ordinaire, ^c, 1810 ; Tables barometriques 

 portatives, 1811 ; Recherches Experimentale et Mathematique sur les 

 Mouvements des Molecules de la Lumiere autour de leur Centre de Gravi- 

 te, 1814; Recherches sur Plusieurs Points de VAstronoinie Egyptienne, 

 1823 ; Recherches sur rAncienne Astronomic Chinoise, 1840. In connec- 

 tion with Arago, he published Recueil d' Observations Geodesiques, SfC, 

 Sfc, executes par Ordre du Bureau des Longitudes de Prance, en Es- 

 pagne et en Ecosse pour determiner la Variation de la Pesanteur, 1821 ; 

 Instructions pratiques sur V Observation et la Mesure des Proprietes 

 Optiques appelees Rotations, 1845. He also published, with Lefert, in 

 1856, Commercium epistolicum J. Collins et aliorum de Analysi Pro- 

 mota, ^c. To these must be added the Melanges Scientifiques et Lit- 

 teraires, in 3 volumes, 1858. 



Space would fail even to enumerate his many scattered memoirs and 

 notices. A conception may be formed of the enormous literary and 

 scientific labor of his life, by considering that he contributed twenty- 

 three memoirs to the Institute, and one to the Memoires des Savans 



