xli 



which he attended for forty years. Ml acknowledge the sagacity, 

 perseverance, and honesty which are conspicuous in this prominent 

 part of Biot's life, as in others. 



As a critic and historian, Biot's field of labour was even wider 

 than that of his life as an experimenter and observer. Had he pub- 

 lished nothing whatever except his papers on Egyptian, Hindoo, and 

 Chinese astronomy, he would have been known as an inquirer the 

 amount of whose labours was fully equal to that of several whose 

 reputation is entirely founded upon oriental astronomy. Had he 

 produced nothing except the long series of articles on contemporary 

 science and history of science which adorns the Journal des Savans, 

 he would have been remarkable as the most continuous and varied 

 scientific critic of his time. And in all these articles there is a 

 close and discriminating production of the whole subject, relieved 

 by legitimate satire, and by a tone of occasional pleasantry which is 

 the true vehicle of certain parts of good criticism. Three volumes 

 of 'Melanges Scientifiques et Litte'raires ' were published in 1858 j 

 but it may be hoped that this will be superseded by a more complete 

 reprint. 



It is natural that a notice in these pages should make allusion to 

 Biot's part in a controversy which, more than any other, concerns 

 this Society : we mean the never-ending question of Newton and his 

 opponents. From the time when the life of Newton appeared in the 

 ' Biographic Universelle,' its author was what we may here call the 

 chief of the opposite party. His views were strong, and ably sup- 

 ported ; his mode of opposition was fair and downright. Biot was 

 one of those disputants who cannot fail to forward sound conclusion, 

 take which side they may. 



As an elementary writer, this country is under especial obligations 

 to Biot. In 1816, just after the termination of the long struggle 

 which had isolated Great Britain from the continent, he produced 

 those treatises on physics, full and abridged, which laid all the re- 

 cent physical improvements before those who could not have sought 

 them in scattered organs of announcement. Very many of those 

 whose youth belongs to this period will remember Biot's ' Traite ' 

 and especially his ' Precis,' as the first sources of their acquaintance 

 with modern experimental methods and results. The treatise on 

 astronomy, not so much known in this country, filled up a void 



