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NATURE 



[May 5, 192 1 



The Centenary of Napoleon. 

 By Eng.-Comdr. Edgar C. Smith, O.B.E., R.N. 



THE death of Napoleon occurred one hundred 

 years ago to-day, and the celebration of his 

 centenary now taking place in France will doubt- 

 less include some recognition of the encourage- 

 ment and patronage given by Napoleon to scientific 

 discovery and mechanical invention. Many rulers 

 have availed themselves of the services of mathe- 

 maticians at their courts, and not a few learned 

 societies owe their existence to the support of 

 kings and princes. An Academy of Sciences at 

 St. Petersburg was the dream of Peter the Great; 

 the golden era of the Prussian Academy was the 

 reign of Frederick the Great. Napoleon, as keen 

 in his appreciation of the value of science as either 

 Peter or Frederick, had not, like them, to seek 

 abroad for men of talent. More than fortunate in 

 this respect, his accession to power coincided with 

 the rise of such institutions as the Ecole Polytech- 

 nique, the Ecole Normale, and the Institut de 

 France, and he found among his contemporaries 

 astronomers, physicists, chemists, and naturalists 

 of the highest rank. Distinguished at school for 

 his mathematical ability, he became a member of 

 the Institute, attended altogether thirty-eight of 

 its sittings, rearranged the various classes, and 

 designed the uniform of its members. It was he 

 who housed the Institute in the Palais des Quatre 

 Nations. During the Egyptian campaign he was 

 wont to sign his proclamations "Member of the In- 

 stitute, General-in-Chief of the Army of the East." 



Among the favourite associates of Napoleon at 

 this time were the savants Monge and Berthollet. 

 It was Monge who carried the Treaty of Campo 

 Formio back to France, and he and Berthollet 

 were among the spoilers detailed to rob the 

 Italian museums and galleries. During the winter 

 of 1797-98 Napoleon attended Berthollet 's lec- 

 tures on chemistry, and it was probably 

 Berthollet 's suggestion that a body of savants 

 should accompany the Egyptian expedition. 

 When the fleet left Toulon in May, 1798, besides 

 his generals and secretaries, Napoleon had in his 

 suite two astronomers, four geometers, a geo- 

 logist, a chemist, three naturalists, and six civil 

 engineers. On the voyage, tired of discussions 

 on religion, government, and strategy, he would 

 raise such questions as whether the planets were 

 inhabited ; how old was the earth ; would the 

 earth be destroyed by fire or water? 



Upon arriving in Egypt Napoleon at once set 

 his corps of savants to work. Undaunted by the 

 destruction of the French fleet by Nelson on 

 August I, 1798, three weeks later, at Cairo, he in- 

 augurated, with considerable ceremony, the short- 

 lived Institute of Egypt. Monge was president, 

 Fourier, the mathematician, secretary, and Napo- 

 leon vice-president. The members were employed 

 on geodetic operations, astronomical work, the 

 study of the Nile, the improvement of crops, and 

 the manufacture of munitions. When the victories 

 of Desaix threw open the middle reaches of the 

 NO. 2688, VOL. 107] 



Nile, the artists and engineers of the Western 

 world gazed for the first time upon the wonders 

 of Memphis. Many of the portable relics trans- 

 ferred first to Cairo and then to Alexandria now 

 rest in the British Museum. Our possession of 

 the Rosetta stone dates from about this time. 

 The story of the geologist Dolomieu rightly be- 

 longs to the Egyptian campaign. Having 

 suffered the hardships of war, he sailed for home, 

 only to be shipwrecked, and then imprisoned by 

 the King of Naples. Bearing his confinement 

 with philosophic resignation, he continued to 

 write his memoirs on the margins of books. Sir 

 Joseph Banks was foremost among those who 

 tried to secure his release, but it was Napo- 

 leon's insertion of a special clause in the treaty 

 after Marengo that gained Dolomieu his liberty. 



During the Consulate and Empire Napoleon 

 gave many proofs of his interest in the progress 

 of science, but no discovery raised his enthusiasm 

 higher than did \'olta's. The invention of the 

 pile had been made known by Volta's letters to 

 Banks. No sooner did Napoleon hear of it than 

 he called the famous physicist to Paris, attended 

 a special sitting of the Institute, and caused a 

 gold medal to be struck bearing the inscription 

 "A Volta, seance du 11. Frimaire, An ix." He 

 afterwards made \'olta a senator and a count, 

 gave him a sum of money, and presented him w ith 

 a sword of honour. The sword and a picture of 

 Volta explaining his battery to Napoleon were 

 among the relics saved from the disastrous fire 

 at the X'^olta Centenary Exhibition at Como in 

 1899. The First Consul further showed his in- 

 terest by founding a prize of 3000 francs "for the 

 best experiment which shall be made in the course 

 of each year on the galvanic fluid." The accept- 

 ance of this prize by Davy in 1808 for his dis- 

 covery of sodium and potassium roused a good 

 deal of feeling in this country, some folk going so 

 far as to consider Davy almost a traitor. Much 

 the same experience had befallen Banks, when, 

 with Sir W. Herschel, Cavendish, Maskelyne, and 

 Priestley, he had been elected one of the first 

 foreign associates of the Institute. 



Another scientific investigator who gained 

 the ear of Napoleon w-as Chladni, the founder 

 of the science of acoustics. Chladni, who had 

 spent some years travelling and lecturing, arrived 

 in Paris in 1808. The Emperor, struck with the 

 importance of his discoveries, called for a report 

 from his French savants, and afterwards gave 

 6000 francs for the translation of Chladni 's 

 treatise. Whether it was ,in the domain of astro- 

 nomy, of chemistry, or of physiology. Napoleon 

 seldom failed to show his respect for work of 

 more than usual merit. His interest in the ana- 

 tomical models of Fontana, in the mathematical 

 work of Mascheroni, and in the discoveries of 

 Spallanzani, and his encouragement of researches 

 on indigo and beetroot, are a few instances whic, 



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