390 



NA TURE 



[August 23, 1900 



region, but following dififerent courses, and separated in time by 

 from one-eighth to one-half of a second. But one flash, quite 

 near to where I stood (one second and a half between flash and 

 sound), gave a repetition following absolutely the same path as 

 the first flash and practically as bright. The only diff"erence 

 was that two faint branches of the first flash were not repeated 

 in the second discharge. The second flash followed so quickly 

 (about an eighth of a second, I estimate), that the impression on 

 the retina of the first discharge had not died out when the 

 second exactly covered it, so that I could appreciate the absolute 

 coincidence. A few kinematographic records of thunderstorms 

 would show whether or not such repetitions are common, and 

 whether they are the cause of dark flashes on the photographic 

 plate. 



Cave Castle, Dumbartonshire, N.B. J. B. Hannay. 



THE LAVOISIER MONUMENT. 



''P HE monument erected by international subscription 



A in honour of Lavoisier was unveiled on July 27, in 



the presence of M. Leygues, French Minister of Public 



Fig. I.— The statue of Lavoisier. 



Instruction, and many eminent men of science, including ! 

 most of the members of the International Congress of j 

 Chemistry. The committee entrusted with the raising 

 of the fund for the statue succeeded in obtaining a sum 

 of 100,000 francs, which was subscribed by admirers of 

 Lavoisier in most parts of the civilised world. M. 

 ^Moissan was the secretary of the committee, and he 

 acknowledged at the unveiling ceremony that there had 



NO. 1608, VOL. 62] 



not been the slightest difficulty in obtaining the means 

 to erect the monument — many subscribers, indeed, were 

 astonished to learn that Paris, where monuments abound, 

 did not possess a statue of the eminent chemist whose 

 investigations helped to lay the foundations of moderi> 

 chemistry. It is true that appreciation of the great 

 chemist has been shown by the publication of his com- 

 plete works, but these are only known to a limited 

 number of students, and the people who live in the pre- 

 sent are likely to forget how much they owe to the past 

 unless they are reminded of their indebtedness by some 

 striking monument in bronze or stone. For this reason, 

 it is well that a permanent memorial of Lavoisier's 

 greatness has now been erected. 



The statue, which is represented in the accompanying 

 illustration from La Nature., is erected in the open space 

 behind the Madeleine Church, close to the house where 

 Lavoisier lived for some years. It is of bronze, and 

 stands upon a granite pedestal ornamented with bas- 

 reliefs. The statue is by M Barrais, and the ftedestal 

 is due to M. Gerhardt. Upon the front of 

 the statue the following inscription appears, 

 in French, " Antoine Laurent Lavoisier,. 

 1 743- 1 794, founder of modern chemistry. 

 Erected by public subscription, under the 

 patronage of the Academy of Sciences. M. 

 Berthelot, Permanent Secretary of Physical 

 Sciences, 1900." One of the bas-reliefs repre- 

 sents Lavoisier explaining his discovery of 

 the composition of air to his colleagues of 

 the Academy of Sciences, of which he was 

 president, the characters introduced into 

 the scene being Monge, Lagrange, Condorcet, 

 BerthoUet, Vicq d'Azyr, Laplace, Lamarc 

 and Guyton de Morveau. On the other 

 bas-relief Lavoisier is shown in his laboratory- 

 dictating notes to his wife. The statue 

 appears to be a real work of art, worthy of 

 »the sculptor and of the subject. 



M. Berthelot was to have presided at the 

 ceremony of the unveiling, but illness pre- 

 vented him from being present, and his 

 address was read by M. Darboux. 



Reference was made to the fact that the 

 inauguration took place under the auspices 

 of the Institute of France, the City of Paris 

 and the French Government, and stress was 

 laid upon the truly international character 

 of the homage to the genius of Lavoisier^ 

 as testified by the subscriptions. The fol- 

 lowing is a free translation of parts of the 

 address : — 



The names of Galileo, Newton, Leibnitz and 

 Lavoisier show that science has no nationality, a 

 monopoly of pure or applied science being the 

 property of no one nation. The erection of a 

 statue in a public place is an honour usually 

 reserved for statesmen and warriors, men who 

 have spattered the earth with blood, too often 

 without lasting profit to the nation devoted to 

 them. To-day the famous savant, thinker, artist, 

 is put in the first rank ;by enlightened people, 

 and posterity will doubtless continue to show an 

 increasing respect for the memory of those men 

 who have served the human race, and to relegate 

 to obscurity the men of blood and intrigue who 

 have enslaved it. 

 The work of Lavoisier is epoch-making from two points of 

 view, from that of philosophy, because he established the fun- 

 damental law which governs the chemical transformations of 

 matter, and from the practical point of view, because this law 

 has become the base of innumerable industries founded ork 

 these transformations, and the origin of the rules of hygiene 

 and therapeutics which follow from it. The fundamental dis- 

 covery of Lavoisier was the distinction between matter and the 

 imponderable .agents, such as heat, light, electricity, which 



