692 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



paper for nine years, published it very irregularly; thus there 

 was only one number in 1670, and none in 1673. 



In 1675 the Journal passed into the hands of Abbe* La Roque, 

 who exhibited in his work a punctuality worthy of praise, but 

 was far from knowing as much of science as his predecessor ; then 

 in 1686 Chancellor Boucherat, who declared himself its protector, 

 intrusted its direction to President Cousin. Finally, in 1701, the 

 Journal was acquired for the state by Chancellor de Pontchar- 

 train, who gave the preparation of the numbers no longer to one 

 man, but to a company of students, consisting of Dupin, Rassicad, 

 Andry, Fontenelle, and Vertot, with Julien Pouchard as director. 

 Thus renewed, supported by Abbe" Bignon, nephew of the chan- 

 cellor, the Journal des Sgavants appeared again on the 2d day of 

 January, 1702, and its history till 1792, when political events com- 

 pelled its suspension again, offered the single noteworthy feature 

 that its period of publication was changed in 1764, and from a 

 weekly it became a monthly, with supplements every six months.* 



Sylvestre de Sacy tried to resuscitate the Journal in 1796 ; but 

 his attempt was abandoned after the publication of twelve num- 

 bers, from the 16th of nivose to the 30th of prairial of the year V. 

 It was re-established September 1, 1816, on the proposition of 

 Barbd Marbois, Keeper of the Seals, and Dambray, chancellor, 

 on a report of the historian Guizot, then general secretary to the 

 Minister of Justice, and has not been suspended since. The presi- 

 dency of the editorial committee appertained to the Keeper of the 

 Seals from that time till the imperial decree of May 4, 1857, by 

 which it was transferred to the Minister of Public Instruction, 

 under whose auspices the Journal is still published. 



Such has been the checkered career of the first French scien- 

 tific journal a career that demonstrates, better than any eulogy 

 can, that the work of De Sallo possessed the qualities of merit and 

 utility which make intellectual work fruitful and durable. 



The detailed history of the Journal des Sgavants may be found 

 in Hatin, Histoire politique et litte'raire de la presse en France, 

 1859, vol. ii, p. 151, and those following ; and in the Me'moire his- 

 torique sur le Journal des Sgavans, in the table of the Journal, by 

 the Abb6 de Claustre, 1764, vol. x, 595 and following pages. 

 Translated for The Popular Science Monthly from the Eevue Scien- 

 tifique. 



lections of the sets exactly alike. If we add to this that the publisher has sometimes inter- 

 calated notes in the reprints without indicating that they were not in the original edition, 

 and that some of the series have been counterfeited in Holland, one may have some idea of 

 the difficulty of the investigation and of the lamentable differences of the editions. 



* There were also supplementary volumes for each of the years 1707, 1708, and 1709, 

 and in 1773 only he five numbers of the first five months were published. 



