EULOGY ON GAY-LUSSAC. 147 



nature, he approached Gay-Lussac, and, after some complimentary re- 

 marks on his ascension, extended his hand and affectionately offered 

 his friendship. It was, with due allowauce, the Soyons amis, China ! 

 (Let us be friends!) of the tragedy, but without the mortifying reflections 

 which, as Voltaire relates, were made by the Mardchal de la Fcnillade, 

 after having heard them for the first time. "Ah ! Auguste, how you do 

 spoil the Soyons amis, Cinna!" Such was the origin of an attachment 

 that was never interrupted, and that soon bore the happiest fruits. We 

 see in fact, immediately afterward, the two new friends executing con- 

 jointly an important eudiometrical work. 



This work, read at the Academy of Sciences, the IstPluvidse, year XIII, 

 had for its principal object an estimate of the exactness that could be ar- 

 rived at in an analysis of air with Volta's eudiometer ; but the authors at 

 the same time touched upon a multitude of questions relating to the 

 chemistry and physics of the earth, throwing great light upon them 

 and making very ingenious conjectures. It is in this memoir that the 

 remark is found (which has since received, at the hands of Gay-Lussac, 

 developments so important) that oxygen and hydrogen, considered in 

 volumes, unite to form water, in the definite proportion of 100 of 

 oxygen and 200 of hydrogen. 



Our scientific annals present a large number of memoirs published 

 under the name of combined authors. This kind of association, much less 

 common abroad, is not without its drawbacks. If we except the very 

 rare case, of which however I could cite instances, where the part of each 

 collaborator was clearly defined in the joint editorship, the public is 

 obstinate in refusing an equal share to both associates. It frequently 

 dismisses, as caprice dictates, the formulas, ice thought, ice imagined, on 

 the very plausible pretext that the same .dea cannot present itself at 

 the same time to the minds of both associates. It refuses to one of 

 them all intellectual initiative and reduces his share to the mechanical 

 execution of the experiments. 



These inconveniences of publishing in common, almost inherent in 

 human nature, disappear when, by way of exception, one of the asso- 

 ciates resolves not to indulge the public in its prejudiced and often 

 malicious surmises, by unhesitatingly disclaiming any part belonging 

 to the other. It was the good fortune of Gay-Lussac to meet with such 

 a collaborator. Here is, in fact, what I read in a note by M. de Hum- 

 boldt: "Let us insist upon the remark contained in this memoir, that 

 100 parts in volume of oxygen require 200 parts in volume of hydrogen 

 gas for saturation. Berzelius has already reminded us that this phe- 

 nomenon is the germ of what was discovered later about definite pro- 

 portions, but the fact of complete saturation is due to the sagacity of 

 Gay-Lussac alone. I co-operated in this part of the experiments, but 

 he alone foresaw the importance of the result to the theory." A decla- 

 ration so frank and loyal from this illustrious and venerable academician 

 will astonish no one. 



