FIRST EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES. 185 
The first experimental researches of Fresnel do not 
date earlier than the beginning of 1815} but setting out 
from this epoch, memoirs succeeded to memoirs, discov- 
eries to discoveries, with a rapidity of which the history 
of science offers few examples. On the 28th of December, 
1814, Fresnel wrote from Nyons, “I do not know what 
is meant by the polarization of light ; beg my uncle, M. 
A. Mérimée, to send me the best works from which I 
may obtain information on this subject.” Eight months 
had scarcely elapsed, when highly skilful researches 
placed him among the most celebrated physicists of our 
era. In 1819 he carried off the prize proposed by the 
Academy on the difficult question of diffraction. In 
1823 he became a member of that body by an una- 
nimity of suffrages,—a kind of success extremely rare, 
since it implies not only merit of the highest order, but 
also, on the part of all the competitors, a frank and ex- 
plicit avowal of inferiority. In 1825 the Royal Society 
of London admitted him a foreign associate ; and, lastly, 
two years later, the same body adjudged to him the 
Rumford Medal. This homage from one of the most 
illustrious scientific bodies in Europe,—this judgment, 
pronounced among a rival people, by the countrymen of 
Newton, in favour of an experimenter who attached little 
value to his discoveries, except as subverting a system of 
which that great genius was the defender,—appears to 
me to possess all the characters of a decree which pos- 
terity will confirm. I hope, then, it will be permitted 
me to appeal to this decree, if in spite of all my desire 
Professor Stokes. (See Philos. Mag. 1845-6.) We merely allude 
to these points in order to show how interesting it would have been 
to have become acquainted with the view taken of such a subject by 
a mind so eminently anticipative as that of Fresnel.— Translator. 
