198 EULOGY ON ARTHUR AUGUSTE DE LA RIVE. 



erate doses, it purifies the air and fertilizes the soil broken by the plow, 

 giviug to its products their agricultural significance. 



If it is chance that provides the atmosphere with only just enough 

 of this useful yet dangerous oxygen to support respiration; that brings 

 into being ozone to destroy the deleterious influences which threaten our 

 lives, and to prepare the nourishment necessary for the plants which 

 supply us with food ; if it is this same chance which fixes the limits to 

 the concentration of oxygen, rendering almost immutable the quantity 

 of inert gas mingled in the air that we breathe; which renders possible 

 and durable for centuries the existence of man upon the earth, then we 

 must conclude, with Auguste De La Rive, that chance is very intelligent; 

 indeed, so intelligent as to deserve another name. 



A flourishing industry, which was commenced about thirty five years 

 ago, under the auspices of the Academy of Sciences — that is, electro- 

 plating — originated in the experiments and practical applications of our 

 respected associate. Up to that time the only mode known of gilding 

 bronze was by the use of mercury. This process produced a good and 

 solid surface, but was fatal to the workmen, as their hands were brought 

 in contact with the dangerous metal, and their lungs exposed to the 

 action of the mercurial vapors during the heating of the articles to be 

 gilded. The old academy oft'ered a prize to any one who would obviate 

 the danger attached to this industry, but it was unclaimed. The pres- 

 ent academy was more fortunate. But, if the industry is indebted for 

 its stimulation to the galvanic process, we should not forget that the 

 first pieces gilded by electricity came from the hands of the sagacious 

 and disinterested physicist whose labors we are contemplating. Thanks 

 especially to him, we are si)ared the distressing spectacle formerly pre- 

 sented by hundreds of unfortunate workmen, involuntary witnesses of 

 the deleterious effects of mercury, who, trembling in every limb, were 

 diseased alike in mind and body. 



Auguste De La Rive was a lover and patron of the fine arts, and it was 

 in some sort under his direction that the celebrated painter of Alpine 

 scenery, Calame, executed his chefd'ceuvre, Mount Rose, the most beauti- 

 ful ornament of the parlor of the scientist. It represents a rugged, lonely 

 scene, a high i>lateau in the mountains, without verdure or any trace of 

 the presence of man. In the background is the Alps, in the foreground 

 a small, dark lake and some rocks ; that is all. But it is nature in her 

 majesty, flooded with the light and enveloped in the pure transparent 

 atmosphere of the mountains — an unadorned exhibition of her grandeur, 

 aftecting powerfully the imagination. 



Our philosopher was never tired of the beautiful spectacle presented 

 by the effect of the setting sun upon Mont Blanc, and was led to some 

 interesting scientific observations of the phenomenon through his ad- 

 miration of its picturesque aspect. At the moment when the sun dis- 

 appears from the horizon, the valley is covered with shade, and the 

 mountain is gradually obscured from the base to near the summit. This 



