138 HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



de Reaumur, who was born at Rochellc, in western 

 France, in 1683. Well born, and having wealthy 

 parents, he was well educated, and destined for the 

 law. He did not follow the propensities of the age, 

 but began to study the arts and manufactures of 

 France with great care, and to spend his spare time 

 in natural history researches. From what is known 

 of his career, it is very evident that he had learned 

 chemistry and mineralogy, and that his education 

 had been a most careful and liberal one. His for- 

 tune was considerable, and it not being necessary for 

 him to work for his bread, he determined to follow 

 the bent of his inclinations. When twenty years 

 of age, Reaumur went to Paris, and his first essay 

 was in the form of some geometrical work which 

 was read before the Academy of Sciences. At the 

 early age of twenty-four he was admitted a member 

 of that learned and somewhat emotional body, and 

 was a very constant contributor to its publications 

 for fifty years. At first his desire was to improve 

 the arts and manufactures of his native land, and in 

 171 1 he made experiments upon the manufacture 

 of ropes, and he showed that the strength of a cord 

 is less than the sum of the strength of the threads 

 of which it consists, whence it follows that the less 

 a rope is twisted after a certain point, the stronger 

 it is. In 171 5 he began to study the process of 

 colouring artificial pearls, and probably it was 

 during these researches that his attention was 

 attracted towards natural history. He found out 

 the nature of the substance which gives the pearly 



