150 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTE BRAVAIS. 



address of my colleague, M. Bravais, lieutenant of the frigate. This 

 courageous friend commanded the sailors who iiew to our succor ; he 

 disposed his troop so skillfully, and fell so vigorously on the enemy, 

 that he forced them to tiy precipitately, and, if conduct aud iutrepidity 

 could have saved me, undoubtedly the conduct and iutrepidity of M. 

 Bravais would have secured my release." 



The commandant, being wounded in the arm, could not write, and as 

 the tirst lieutenant was prisoner, the duty of making the report upon 

 the tight, iu which two sailors had been slain, devolved on M. Bravais. 

 In drawing up this paper he avoided, as far as possible, under the im- 

 pulse of his habitual modesty, all mention of himself; hence, while the 

 minister of marine bestowed praise upon the Loiret, the author of the 

 report received no decoration, as all around him would have wished. 

 Yet, in the eyes of those who knew all the details of the afiair, the un- 

 designed omission of the minister reflected more honor on the young 

 officer than the star itself of the order would have conferred. He re- 

 ceived that distinction, however, on another occasion, and for services 

 of a wholly different character. 



Nature had largely endowed M. Bravais. With the brilliant officer 

 and zealous naturalist there was united in him, according to the ex- 

 pression of M. Cauchy, assuredly a competent judge in such matters, 

 the true geometer. The former student of the College of Stanislas, who, 

 in pursuing his course of rhetoric and philosophy, passed the night iu 

 studying books of mathematics, had resumed, on board the Loiret, anal- 

 ogous habits. With the consent of the superior officers, by whom he 

 was rightly appreciated, his comrades, themselves highly distinguished, 

 though with a different turn of mind, replaced him on the quarterdeck 

 when his watch recurred, and M. Bravais shut himself up iu his cabin, 

 where he spent the night in executing his calculations, or in solving 

 such problems as presented themselves. It was thus that he made the 

 calculations necessary for the reduction of the hydrographic projection 

 of the coasts of Algeria; and thus, likewise, that he composed the math- 

 ematical part of the botanical memoir which he published with his 

 brother. Thus, too, a career was eventually opened to him of a special 

 nature, and such as appealed most directly to his natural proclivities. 



Among other mathematical labors which M. Bravais had executed on 

 board the Loiret, he had composed two memoirs, one on the Methods 

 employed in taking hearings under sail, and the other on the UquiUbrium 

 of Jloating bodies. Having obtained leave of absence from the minister 

 of marine, he formed from these memoirs two theses which he sustained 

 before the Faculty of Sciences of Lyons, in consequence of which he 

 Avas received as doctor of sciences. These theses attracted just notice, 

 and the minister subscribed for several copies of the second for the 

 libraries of the ports. In thus acquiring the doctorate of mathematical 

 sciences, M. Bravais was conforming to the friendly advice of M. Pois- 

 sou, who, after conducting his examiuai'on at his exit from the Poly- 

 technic School, had asked him why he did not enter upon the career of 

 science. He still followed that advifie in presenting to the iVcademy 

 several memoirs of analysis and geometry, upon which MM. Poisson, 

 Sturm, and Savary, made favorable reports. 



From this period the minister of marine chose that M. Bravais should 

 be released from the clandestine pursuit of science, and assigned him 

 service in a mission purely scientific. He attached him to the Scientific 

 Commission of the North, which was under the conduct of M. Gaimard, 

 and of which M. Victor Lottin, lieutenant, had for several years formed 

 a ])art. The commission had been inaugurated under melancholy cir- 



