- 164 MALUS. 
Among the candidates there was conspicuous an en- 
gineer of roads and bridges, who had also borne a part in 
the Egyptian expedition, and whose connections with the 
academicians were numerous and of old date. Every 
one, therefore, foresaw that the place would be vigorously 
contested. On the day of election, August 13, 1810, one 
of Malus’s friends undertook to bring him the news of 
the result the moment it was known. But by an un- 
fortunate combination of circumstances the scrutiny was 
not opened till a later time than usual. Malus obtained 
31 votes, his opponent 22. The friend of Malus, just 
alluded to, did not lose a moment in going to him to an- 
nounce the happy result. But the usual hour at which 
the news ought to have reached him having long passed, 
the great physicist believed himself to have been defeated, 
and abandoned himself, in spite of all the consolations 
which his wife afforded him, to the deepest despondency. 
Thus the intrepid soldier of the army of Sambre and 
Meuse,—he who had seen the near approach of death at 
the combat of Chebreys, at the battle of the Pyramids, 
on the day of the revolt of Cairo, in the immortal day of 
Heliopolis,—the officer who at Jaffa and Damietta had 
sustained the attacks of the plague with such firmness of 
mind,—allowed himself to yield and sink under the sup- 
posed want of success .in an election of the Academy! 
Let us preserve and value these recollections! Who 
will venture to maintain the uselessness of such institu- 
tions when he sees the author of one of the greatest dis- 
coveries of modern times attach such a price to the title 
of Academician? Who does not perceive with what 
emulation young experimentalists ought to be animated, 
when the society in which they aspire to take their place, 
constantly anxious to repel from itself all suspicion of 
? 
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