RECEPTION OF THE UNDULATORY THEORY. 477 



It was probably in consequence of the delays to 

 which we have referred, in the publication of Fres- 

 nel's memoirs, that as late as December, 1826, the 

 Imperial Academy at St. Petersburg proposed, as 

 one of their prize-questions for the two following- 

 years, this, "To deliver the optical system of 

 waves from all the objections which have (as it ap- 

 pears) with justice been urged against it, and to 

 apply it to the polarization and double refraction 

 of light." In the programme to this announcement, 

 Fresnel's researches on the subject are not alluded 

 to, though his memoir on diffraction is noticed; 

 they were, therefore, probably not known to the 

 Russian Academy. 



Young was always looked upon as a person of 

 marvellous variety of attainments and extent of 

 knowledge ; but during his life he hardly held that 

 elevated place among great discoverers which pos- 

 terity will probably assign him. In 1802, he was 

 constituted Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society, 

 an office which he held during life; in 1827 he was 

 elected one of the eight Foreign Members of the 

 Institute of France ; perhaps the greatest honour 

 which men of science usually receive. The fortune 

 of his life in some other respects was of a mingled 

 complexion. His profession of a physician occu- 

 pied, sufficiently to fetter, without rewarding him ; 

 while he was Lecturer at the Royal Institution, he 

 was, in his lectures, too profound to be popular; 

 and his office of Superintendent of the Nautical 



