618 Life of Count Rumford. 



had established himself in Paris, and took an active part in our 

 occupations. He regarded them as his contributions as a mem- 

 ber of the Institute. 



"These are the principal scientific achievements of M. 

 Rumford, but they are by no means all the services which he 

 has rendered to the sciences. He knew that in discoveries, as 

 in good deeds, the work of a man is transient and limited, and 

 that in both of these directions it is necessary to propose and 

 foster durable institutions. So he has founded two prizes, which 

 are to be annually assigned by the Royal Society of London 

 and by the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia [Cuvier's mis- 

 take], for the most important experiments of which light and 

 heat shall be the objects, a foundation in which, while exhibit- 

 ing his passion as a physicist, he testified also his regard for his 

 native and for his adopted country, and proved that, in having 

 served the latter, he had no ill feeling against the former. 



" He was the principal founder of the Royal Institution of 

 London, one of those establishments best adapted to advance the 

 progress of the sciences and their applications to public utility. 

 In a country in which each individual glories in encouraging 

 anything which benefits a large number, the mere distribution 

 of his prospectus procured him considerable funds, and his own 

 active efforts secured his object. The prospectus itself was a 

 sort of description of the result, for it spoke of an enterprise 

 already in great part realized. A large edifice exhibited all sorts 

 of models and machines in working order ; he gathered there a 

 library, and he constructed a fine amphitheatre where courses of 

 lectures are given on chemistry, on mechanics, and on political 

 economy. Light and heat, the two favorite studies of Count 

 Rumford, and the mysteries wrought by combustion which 

 these subject to the service of men, ought to be there con- 

 stantly under examination. This establishment was the work 

 of only five months, which Rumford had passed in England 

 without a purpose of remaining there." 



Cuvier then refers to the Count's military services in 

 Bavaria in the campaign of 1796, to his appointment 



