TRANSLATOR S INTRODUCTION XXXV 



Sciences thus became the chief focus of Conti- 

 nental science, at the very time \vhen Kant was 

 silently prosecuting- his ' voyage of discovery ' 

 through the infinity of space and time. It soon 

 eclipsed all the other Continental Academies and 

 even Newton's Royal Society, in the abundance 

 and fertility of its work ; and it either drew the 

 great mathematicians in person to its halls, or 

 attracted their best contributions to the pages of 

 its Transactions, which were printed mostly in 

 Latin or French, to the close of the century. 

 The busy brain of Euler contributed 60 papers in 

 all on important topics in mathematics and physics 

 from the beginning of 1744 till the beginning of 



1755, and other 61 by 1778. The younger Euler 

 began to move in his footsteps in 1754. Mauper- 

 tuis contributed 10 papers from 1746 to 1756. 

 Lambert contributed 51 papers from 1761 to 1784. 

 Lalande sent 3 papers in 1750. Daniel Bernoulli 

 contributed 5 papers from 1745 to 1765 ; and John 

 Bernoulli followed in his train with 52 papers from 



1756. Lagrange contributed 63 papers in all from 

 1765 to I8O3. 1 Between the work of its Ordinary 

 and Foreign Members, the Berlin Academy thus 

 exercised an immense influence in stimulating and 

 directing the scientific spirit in Prussia about the 

 middle of the eighteenth century. The great pro- 

 blems then under discussion by these master minds 



1 For the subjects, see the Verzeichniss der Abhandlungen der 

 Koniglich Preussischen Academic der Wissensfhaften, -von 1710-1870. 



