38 



Academy in my name ; I thanked him for the honor he did 

 me, and he replied that anything coming from me would 

 always be presented by him with great pleasure. I shall give 

 him my notes when I return from the Khine. Meanwhile he 

 has presented one paper from me on atomic volumes, and de 

 Beaumont another on the hypersthene rocks, besides I have read 

 two papers before the Academy myself, one on the acid 

 springs and gypsum of Canada, and one on its saline waters. 

 These were referred to a committee of Dumas, Boussingault 

 and de Lenarmond, and both are published in the Comptes 

 Rendus of the Academy, where I have thus published four 

 memoires, besides one in the bulletin of the Geological Soci- 

 ety, on the magnesium rocks, serpentines, etc., of Canada. 

 All my memoires have been very well received and much 

 talked of; they seem to have been very fortunate. I shall 

 bring you copies of them. I am very fortunate in being able 

 to write and speak French. We had a meeting of the Soci- 

 ety last week, and made several excursions about Paris. I 

 bring you some aluminium with a little note from Ste. Claire 

 Deville, the discoverer. As for aluminium, it is still very 

 rare, perhaps 100 pounds have been made by Deville for the 

 emperor, who has defrayed from his own purse the experi- 

 ments. Rousseau, the greatest fabricant of rare chemicals in 

 France, sells it, however, at three and a half cents a grain, 

 the price of gold, and everybody buys specimens of it at that 

 price, so that he can hardly supply the demand. I send you 

 a bit in this letter from Deville himself, for you, but his- 

 autograph I will keep till I see you." 



The honor he expected was conferred. He was made Chev- 

 alier of the Legion of Honor, and subsequently raised to the 

 rank of Officer. After the congress of Bologna, King Hum- 

 bert of Italy decorated him with the order of St. Mauritius- 

 and St. Lazarus. Literary honors were also showered on 

 him, and when elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1859, 

 he enjoyed the distinction of being the youngest of that 

 generation entitled to add F.R.S. to his name. Early in his 

 career Harvard conferred on him the degree of M.A., but his. 



