A LABORIOUS YOUTH 29 



senites of Potash, Soda and Ammonia, and that 

 in physics containing a Study of the Phe- 

 nomena relating to the Rotary Polarization oj 

 Liquids. Following his defense of these theses, 

 which won him the degree of Doctor, he took 

 an extremely brief rest at Arbois, and it was 

 with a sort of feverish impatience that he re- 

 turned to Paris to continue his study of crys- 

 tals. It was destined to continue for five years 

 and to end by shedding light upon what had 

 hitherto been nothing but darkness and confu- 

 sion. 



It is impossible to mention all the details and 

 fluctuations of this research, for, while great 

 flashes of inspired intuition opened up new as- 

 pects of science, he verified them by so many 

 experiments, rigorously conducted and fre- 

 quently repeated, that a detailed account would 

 mean a bulletin of his daily toil. In proportion 

 as he obtained results he addressed notes to the 

 Academy of Sciences, the first dating from 1848, 

 Note on the Crystallization of Sulphur, Re- 

 searches into the different Modes of Grouping 



