ed” wad pe i = a lee 
* 7 ae 8: en 
MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF HEAT. 409 
is the sole inventor of the steam-engine. Chaptal has 
enriched the arts of Chemistry with the totality of the 
fertile and ingenious processes which constitute their 
prosperity. Even within this apartment has not an 
eloquent voice lately asserted, that before Fourier the 
phenomenon of heat was hardly studied; that the cele- 
brated geometer had alone made more observations than 
all his predecessors put together; that he had with 
almost a single effort invented a new science. 
Although he runs the risk of being less lively, the 
organ of the Academy of Sciences cannot permit himself 
such bursts of enthusiasm. He ought to bear in mind, 
that the object of these solemnities is not merely to cele- 
brate the discoveries of academicians; that they are also 
designed to encourage modest merit; that an observer 
forgotten by his contemporaries, is frequently supported 
in his laborious researches by the thought that he will 
obtain a benevolent look from posterity. Let us act, so 
far as it depends upon us, in such a manner that a hope 
So just, so natural, may not be frustrated. Let us award 
a just, a brilliant homage to those rare men whom nature 
has endowed with the precious privilege of arranging a 
thousand isolated facts, of making seductive theories 
spring from them; but let us not forget to state, that the 
scythe of the reaper had cut the stalks before one had 
thought of uniting them into sheaves ! 
Heat presents itself in natural phenomena, and in 
those which are the products of art under two entirely 
distinct forms, which Fourier has separately considered. 
I shall adopt the same division, commencing however 
with radiant heat, the historical sia which I am 
about to submit to you. 
Nobody doubts that there is a physical distinction 
18 
