372 SIR CmVELES WHEATSTOXE. 



emy and of the Chamber of Deputies; and an elaborate IMemoir of 

 his life and writings was communicated to the Revue des Deux 

 Mondes (November, 1875) by his life-long friend, M. Duvergier de 

 Hauranue, in which ami)le justice was done to him as an eminent 

 writer, a religious philosopher, and a constant and able supporter of 

 liberal principles. 



The United States Minister to France (Mr. Washburne), in a pub- 

 lished despatch to the State Department at Washington (18 June, 

 1875), after alluding to the friendship which M. de Remusat had 

 always manifested for our country and its institutions, speaks of him 

 as follows : " To quick intelligence and rare culture he united the 

 simplest manners and most unaffected modesty. His genial disposi- 

 tion, the graces of his spirit, and the charm of his conversation, left 

 upon all the impression of his purity and worth as a citizen, his 

 accomplishments as a statesman, and his fidelity, honesty, and patriot- 

 ism as a public servant. The love of France was the hope and 

 inspiration of his life. . . . Though always holding liberal opinions, his 

 inclinations were monarchical ; but, yielding to the logic of events and 

 the demands of circumstances, it was his -judgment that the Republic 

 was the only form of Government that could give peace and safety to 

 France." 



He was elected a member of this Academy on the 12th of Novem- 

 ber, 1873. 



SIR CHARLES WHEATSTONE. 



Charles "Wheatstone was born at Gloucester, in tlie year 1802. 

 His early education appears to have been very limited ; but he dis- 

 played, as a boy, a strong taste for mechanics, and esi)ecially for the 

 construction or modification of musical instruments. He began his 

 scientific career with the study of acoustics, and made numerous original 

 experiments and researches, his first paper appearing in tlie *' Aiuials 

 of Philosophy," in 1823. For some years he was a dealer in musical 

 instruments ; but he soon began to direct his attention to other sub- 

 jects, and in 1834 published the results of a series of experiments on 

 the velocity of electricity, made with apparatus constructed for him by 

 the late Mr. Joseph Saxton, of Washington. The progress of science 

 has shown that Wheatstone's experiments led him to conclusions which 

 were in some respects untenable ; but his paper was received with 

 acclamation, and certainly gave a decided impulse to the science of 



