164 MALTJS. 



Among the candidates there was conspicuous an en- 

 gineer of roads and bridges, who had also borne a part in 

 the Egyptian expedition, and whose connections with the 

 academicians were numerous and of old date. Every 

 one, therefore, foresaw that the place would be vigorously 

 contested. On the day of election, August 13, 1810, one 

 of Malus's friends undertook to bring him the news of 

 the result the moment it was known. But by an un- 

 fortunate combination of circumstances the scrutiny was 

 not opened till a later time than usual. Malus obtained 

 31 votes, his opponent 22. The friend of Malus, just 

 alluded to, did not lose a moment in going to him to an- 

 nounce the happy result. But the usual hour at which 

 the news ought to have reached him having long passed, 

 the great physicist believed himself to have been defeated, 

 and abandoned himself, in spite of all the consolations 

 which his wife afforded him, to the deepest despondency. 

 Thus the inti-epid soldier of the army of Sambre and 

 Meuse, — he who had seen the near approach of death at 

 the combat of Chebreys, at the battle of the Pyramids, 

 on the day of the revolt of Cairo, in the immortal day of 

 Heliopolis, — the oificer who at Jaffa and Damietta had 

 sustained the attacks of the plague with such firmness of 

 mind, — allowed himself to yield and sink under the sup- 

 posed want of success in an election of the Academy ! 

 Let us preserve and value these recollections ! Who 

 will venture to maintain the uselessness of such institu- 

 tions when he sees the author of one of the greatest dis- 

 coveries of modern times attach such a price to the title 

 of Academician ? Who does not perceive with what 

 emulation young experimentalists ought to be animated, 

 when the society in which they aspire to take their place, 

 constantly anxious to repel from itself all suspicion of 



