Obituary Notice of Arago. 115 
continued until 1847, presenting in them the most arduous details’ of 
the science. On the 7th of June, 1830, he was named perpetual Sec- 
/ : thi 
gree to that aie an standing and authority now accorded to it by 
the scientific w 
The rvoation of 1830 broke out, and Arago entered political life. 
Name ember of the Chamber of Deputies, he took his seat amon 
the vepibticand’ pee’ eing a 
influence in the parliamentary debates. It was on his Report, that a 
national recompense was voted to Daguerre, the inventor of Photogra- 
phy, and to Vicat, the inventor of hydraulic cements. He voted the 
printing of the works of La Place and those of Fermat; he defended 
the railroads against the coalition of the ‘ maitres de porte”; he pro- 
tected electric telegraphs against the adverse intentions of the adminis- 
tration represented in the Chamber of Deputies by M. Pouillet, the 
Proitese: in a word, in all circimstances, Arago was at the head of 
ment. He had just completed his eulozy of Bailey, the Astronomer, 
the friend of Franklin, who took an active part in the revolution of 
1789, of nora he wasa victim. Reasoning by analogy, ah i looked 
for a like fat This fear was happily exaggerated. __ s had 
Afier the coup @etat of December 2, 1851, pe refused to take 
the oath of allegiance, which was required of him in his capacity as 
director of the Observatory, and thus made manifest once more that 
politics ought to be kept aloof from Science 
A life of so much labor had worn down his health. Although 
his unfinished dorks Bright’s mala ‘ set in and aggravated his 
wa 
with effusions, and swelling of the extremities. All announced his 
pigdiecdh! S. end : et oe ind was not for a moment obse ed. 
whi enttiabd some of the works which Arago accomplished 
in a younger days. These fede were completely “eclipsed by the 
discoveries to which ‘his name has since become attached, which em- 
brace the following principles 
The discovery of ehtomaite and rotatory polarization. 
2. That of Electro-magnets. 
