MEMOIR OF LOUIS JACQUES THENAED. 377 



lege of France, and I require you to go at once and apply for it." Tlienard 

 feels a delicacy, "Come, come," rejoins the professor; "be quick; I have 

 taken the cabriolet by the hour and you ruin me with these delays." The 

 necessary visits being made, Thenard readily secured the position Avhich con- 

 duced so much in the end to his extraordinary popularity. The students 

 seemed to attach themselves with peculiar enthusiasm to one raised by toil from 

 their own ranks and wholly unchanged by his elevation. Vauqueliu, who con- 

 tinued to watch over his interests, and who greatly admired in Fourcroy the 

 charms of delivery which he himself neglected, would fain have invested his 

 favorite pupil with this additional attraction, and Thenard readily lent himself 

 to the attempt. It was perhaps the only experiment in which he ever failed. 

 In vain did he seek for models in society, counsels from' his friends, instructions 

 from our great actors. Mole and Talma; the cliampagnard was destined to bear 

 to the end the original impress, somewhat rough perhaps, but thoroughly French, 

 which detinitely consigned him to a type well recognized and not a little vaunted 

 by our national self-esteem. 



A few years only separated Thenard from the period when foreign invasion 

 had made it necessary for France to improvise nearly all the resources incident 

 to war. To this end, none had contributed more efficiently than Monge and 

 Berthollet, Avho afterwards accompanied Napoleon to Fgypt, and were often 

 consulted by him when subsequent successes had placed him at the summit 

 of power. "Tell me," he said one day to Laplace, "why it is that I see at 

 present so little of Berthollet?" "My friend," replied Laplace, "has become 

 embarrassed through his undertakings for the advancement of industry, and is 

 chagrined that it should be so." "Tell him to come and see me," said the 

 Fmperor. Soon after, seeing his old Egyptian at the extremity of the saloon, 

 he goes directly to him and extends his hand. " Berthollet, you are iinhapp}^ 

 and you do your friends the injustice of not confiding your cares to them : 

 name the sum you require, and think no longer of anything but your researches." 

 Berthollet was then initiating in these researches a young man whose zeal and 

 intelligence rendered him an invaluable assistant in the laboratory. Gay 

 Lussac, in his earliest memoirs, gave evidence of that precision of thought and 

 accuracy of*judgment to which in the sequel chemistry has been indebted for 

 so many important services. An analogy of position soon induced between 

 him and Thenard relations of confidence and co-operation, while both were so 

 fortunate as to enjoy the advantages of the scientific retreat which Berthollet 

 had created for himself at Arcueil, and which Laplace often animated by his 

 presence and patronage. 



About this period a great sensation was produced in the scientific world. 

 Berzelius had just revealed the power of decomposition exerted by the voltaic 

 pile upon compound bodies. Uavy, availing himself of more poAverful appa-« 

 ratus, had succeeded in decomposing the two fixed alkalies, which till then had 

 been considered simple bodies : in potash and soda he found, united with oxygen, 

 two metals to Avhich he gave the names of potassium and sodium. He after- 

 wards undertook the analysis of the alkaline earths, each of which afibrded a 

 peculiar metal, while in all, oxygen presented itself as a common principle. 

 Proceeding still further, he disclosed, in a paper full of original views, some 

 of the profound relations which connect chemical with electric forces, affinities 

 with electricity. With generous enthusiasm, the Institute of France awarded 

 to this paper the grand prize founded for the progress of galvanism; and 

 though war was raging between the two countries, the English savant was 

 invited to come and receive it in person. This was an act of justice nobly 

 accorded. 



" Will you tolerate this triumph of the English ?" impatiently demanded 

 Napoleon of Berthollet. A gigantic pile was forthAvith constructed by the 

 Emperor's order, and confided to Thenard and Gay Lussac, who soon after 



