JEAN-BAPTISTE-ANDRE DUMAS. 549 



him the opportunity of exerting a most powerful influence, and this he 

 used with great eftect. In early life he had been elected, in 1832, a 

 member of the Academy of Sciences in succession to Serullas ; in 18G8 

 he had succeeded Flourens as its Permanent Secretary ; and in 1875 he 

 was elected a member of the French Academy as successor to Guizot, 

 a distinction rarely attained by a man of science. 



It was, however, as Permanent Secretary of the Academy of Sci- 

 ences that Dumas exerted during the last years of his life his greatest 

 influence. He was the central figure and the ruling spirit of this dis- 

 tinguished body. No important commission was complete without 

 him, and on all public occasions he was the orator of the body, always 

 appropriate, always eloquent. In announcing Dumas's death to the 

 Academy, M. Holland, the presiding ofllcer, said : — 



" Vous savez la part consideral)le que Dumas prenait a vos travaux 

 et vous avez bien souvent admire, comme moi, la haute intelligence 

 et la tact mfini avec lesquels il savait imprimer a nos discussions 

 les formes moderees et courtoises inherentes a sa nature et a son 

 caractere. Sous ce rapport aussi la perte de Dumas est irreparable et 

 cree dans I'Academie un vide bien difficile a combler. Aussi, long- 

 temps encore nous chercherons, a la place qu'il occnpait au Bureau 

 avec tant d'autorite, la figure sympathique et veneree de notre bien- 

 aime Secretaire perpetuel." 



And while Dumas was still occupying his conspicuous position in 

 the Academy, one of the most distinguished of his German con- 

 temporaries* wrote of him: "An ever-ready interpreter of the 

 researches of others, he always heightens the value of what he 

 communicates by adding from the rich stores of his own experience, 

 thus often conveying lights not noticed even by the authors of those 

 researches." 



"When the writer last saw Dumas, in the winter of 1881-82, the 

 great chemist had still all the vivacity of youth, and it was difficult to 

 realize his age. He took a lively interest in all questions of chemical 

 philosophy, which he discussed with great earnestness and warmth. 

 There was the same fire and the same exuberance of fancy which had 

 enchanted me in his lectures thirty years before. At an age when 

 most men hold speculation in small esteem, I was much struck with 

 his criticism of a contemjiorary, who, he said, had no imagination. 



* A. W. Hofmann, in Nature, February 6, 1880, to whose admirable and ex- 

 tended bioiirapliy tlie writer is indebted for niucli of the material with which 

 this notice has been prepared. 



