MEMOIR OF OERSTED. 179 



'' Tlie Academy announced in its public session of the 27th March, 1820, that in 

 that of March, 1822 it would award the prize of mathematics, consisting- of a g-old 

 medal of the value of 3,000 francs, to the best work or memoir on pure or 

 applied mathematics, wliich shall have aupeared or been communicated to the 

 Academy during the space of two years which are accorded to competitors. 



** j\Iauy physico-mathematical researches, worthy of high praise, have appeared 

 in that interval. * * * r3ut the importance of the discovery of the action 

 of the voltaic pile on the magnetic needle, a discovery which furnishes a new 

 jirinciple to applied mathemalies,-and which has already given rise to interesting 

 applications of analysis, has determined the commission to award to it the ])rize 

 of mathematics. The commission charged with the examination of articles for 

 the prizes of mathematics is in the habit of adjudging those prizes without the 

 co-operation of the Academy. But as the discovery in question is not explicitly 

 cDmprised in the programme, it has been thought that the authorization of the 

 societ}^ should be invoked for awarding the prize to this admirable discovery. 

 This projiosal having been submitted to the deliberations of the Academy, was 

 unhesitatingly adopted." 



A place having soon afterwards become vacant among the correspondents of 

 the Academy for tlu^ section of physics, the nt)mination of M. Oersted to supply 

 it took place 9th June, 1823. In the sequel, the highest scientiHc distinction at 

 the disposal of the Academ\' was conferred on him, 11th April, 1842, by his elec- 

 tion as one of its eight foreign associates, to replace the distinguished botanist 

 de Candolle. 



The just eclat which had attended the discovery of Oersted, by no means 

 diminished his desire of sometimes placing himself in personal communication 

 with the savants of other comitries. In 1822 he again went to Germany, 

 where, independently of those who more peculiarly ranked as savants, Goethe, 

 the illustrious poet, to whom nothing in the domain of intellect w-as alien, 

 received him with distinction ; as is testified by the manner in which Oersted's 

 discovery is spoken of in several passages of his writings. 



Oersted was now, for some time, engaged in thermo-electric experiments with 

 Seebeck, and afterwards came to Paris in 1823. The Academy shared the 

 ])leasure which he experienced on taking his place in its ranks, and, during his 

 sojotu-n, was entertained by several series of experiments which he performed 

 in its presence, not the least curious of which were those executed in common 

 l)y himself and Fourier.* In these, bars of bismuth and of antimony soldered 

 together alternately and forming a closed circuit, were employed. By heating 

 or cooling the solderings, electrical currents w'ere produced which appeared miire 

 abundant Init less intense than the currents developed by weak hydro-electric 

 action, and gave occasion to many interesting observations. 



Towards the middle of summer Oersted passed into England and Scotland, 

 and was received, as he had been in France, with a cordiality and attention 

 which testified the high estimation in which the author of tlie discovery of 

 electro-magnetism was equally held in those countries. On his return to Copen- 

 hagen, he resumed his life of labor with more ardor than ever. The north of 

 Eiuope then exhibited the spectacle of a brilliant scientific arena. At Stock- 

 In >lni, Berzelius, one of the princes of chemistry, at Copenhagen, Oersted, one 

 of the princes of physics, formed, as it were, two centers of labor and discovery, 

 around which gravitated, like so many brilliant satellites, men destined them- 

 selves to a just and well-earned celel)rity — Arfvedson, Nordenskiold, Bonsdorff, 

 Mitscherlich, Gustave and Henry Hose, &;c. 



'J'ho noble emulaticm which estai)lislied itself between the laboratories of the 

 two capitals is easih' conceived. Oersted reapplied hiins(df to chemistry. 

 IJesuming at the end of a quarter of a century his investigations of 1799 on 

 alumina,, he accomplished, in 1824, a work which placed him in the rank of the 



* See Annates de chim. et de physique, t. xxxii, p. 375, (April, 1823.) 



