Memoir of the late Gaspard Mange. 17'> 



opium. I have, therefore, no doubt in considering your plan as 

 an improvement in the arts, which may be adopted with great 

 advantage in Britain. 



I am, sir, &c. 

 John Youns, E^q. Andrew Duncan, Sen. M.D.P. 



Surgeon, Edin. Physician, Edin. 



Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, April 20, 1818. 

 Dear Sir, — During the last year I have frequently administered 

 the opium made by you to patients in the Ptoyal Infirmary, and 

 it gives me much pleasure to report to you, that 1 have found it 

 produce the same effects as the best foreign preparation of the 

 medicine, and I think that a smaller quantity is necessary than 

 of the foreign opium. 



I am, sir, &c. 

 John Young, Esq. burgeon. A. Gillespie. 



XXIV. Memoir of the late Gaspard Monge. From Historical 

 Essay on his Services and Scientific JForks, by M. C. Dupin, 

 a Pupil of Monge, and Member of the French Institute. 



(jr. Monge was born at Beaune in 17^6. His progress was such 

 that thev gave him the office of Professor of Natural Philosophy 

 in the college at Lyons, although he had only begun to study it 

 the vear before. Returning to Beaune in the vacation, he set 

 about the survey of that town. As he had not proper instruments 

 for that purpose, he made some himself. He dedicated his work 

 to the administration of his native place, and they recompensed 

 the young author, as far as the limited finances of the place would 

 allow. A lieutenant-colonel of the engineers, who happened to 

 be at Beaune, obtained for Monge an appointment as draughts- 

 man and pupil in the\Ecole d'Apparailleurs et deConductewsdcs 

 Travaux des Fortifications (equivalent to our Drawing School in 

 the Tower). As he was an excellent draughtsman, his manual 

 dexterity was alone considered. He, however, already knew his 

 own strength, and saw with great indignation the value that was 

 exclusively bestowed on his mechanical talents. " I was tempted," 

 said he, " a long time afterwards, a thousand times, to tear my 

 drawings, out of spite for the value set on them, just as if I had 

 been good for nothing else." The director of the school ordered 

 him to calculate a particular case oi difilement, an operation in 

 which the relief and ground-work of fortifications are to be com- 

 bined together with the smallest possible charge, but so that the 

 defenders may be sheltered from the shot of the assailants. Monge 

 abandoned the method hitherto followed, and discovered the first 

 general gcon)etrical method that was known for this important 



operation. 



