A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



anticipated by a philosopher across the Channel. He 

 communicated his experiments and results to the 

 French Institute, supposing them to be absolutely 

 novel. That body referred them to a committee, of 

 which, as good fortune would have it, the dominating 

 member was Dominique Franc, ois Arago, a man as ver- 

 satile as Young himself, and hardly less profound, if 

 perhaps not quite so original. Arago at once recog- 

 nized the merit of Fresnel's work, and soon became a 

 convert to the theory. He told Fresnel that Young 

 had anticipated him as regards the general theory, but 

 that much remained to be done, and he offered to asso- 

 ciate himself with Fresnel in prosecuting the investiga- 

 tion. Fresnel was not a little dashed to learn that 

 his original ideas had been worked out by another 

 while he was a lad, but he bowed gracefully to the 

 situation and went ahead with unabated zeal. 



The championship of Arago insured the undulatory 

 theory a hearing before the French Institute, but by no 

 means sufficed to bring about its general acceptance. 

 On the contrary, a bitter feud ensued, in which Arago 

 was opposed by the "Jupiter Olympus of the Acade- 

 my," Laplace, by the only less famous Poisson, and by 

 the younger but hardly less able Biot. So bitterly 

 raged the feud that a life-long friendship between 

 Arago and Biot was ruptured forever. The opposition 

 managed to delay the publication of Fresnel's papers, 

 but Arago continued to fight with his customary en- 

 thusiasm and pertinacity, and at last, in 1823, the 

 Academy yielded, and voted Fresnel into its ranks, 

 thus implicitly admitting the value of his work. 



It is a humiliating thought that such controversies as 



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