499 
NATURE 

SCIENCE IN PARIS DURING THE SIEGE 
{4 a somewhat striking passage in the De Augmentis 
Scientiarum Francis Bacon contrasts the endurance 
of monuments of learning with that of those raised by 
the hand of man. The verses of Homer, he reminds us, 
have endured formore than twenty centuries, during which 
time numberless palaces, temples, and cities have dis- 
appeared from the face of theearth. Some such reflection 
as this may have induced the members of the Académie 
des Sciences of Paris to continue their weekly meetings 
with perfect regularity during the bombardment. While 
everything else was turned upside down, while a dynasty 
was passing away, while sons and brothers were perish- 
ing around them, an enemy at their gates, want within 
their walls, and missiles of war threatening themselves 
and their household gods, these men continued their usual 
studies. We are reminded of Archimedes at the siege of 
Syracuse, save that there we have but one man, while here 
it is a large body of the intellectual flower of the country. 
Some of the more active of the members are men who 
have attained that philosophic calm, which not even the 
terrors of war can dispel, nething diverts them from the 
even tenour of their way— 
Si fractus illabatur orbis, 
Impavidum ferient ruinz. 
We frequently meet with the names of Dumas, Elie de 
Beaumont, and Chevreul in the Comptes Rendus published 
during the siege. The youngest of these men was born in 
the last year of the last century ; they have seen every 
phase of Parisian life, are men of infinite experience and 
learning, the very soul of the Academy; they have held 
office under various Governments, have seen more than 
one revolution ; barricades and street fighting, and the 
Parthian cap are no novelty to them; but with all 
their experience they had never beheld a bombardment 
of Paris; yet, all honour to them, they did not abate one 
jot of their Academic work, Perhaps the members may 
have felt it a relief to have to deal with immutable and 
indestructible facts, while everything around them was so 
mutable and perishing. Perhaps they remembered a 
saying of one of their countrymen :—“ L’homme n’a pas de 
self-critérium. L’indestructibilité du fait est le critérium 
unique, infaillible, absolu, multiple, un, présent dans tous 
les ordres des connaissances.”* 
The papers read before the Academy during the period of 
the siege relate for the most part to matters connected 
with war and to the food resources of a besieged city. 
M. Payen writes on hippophagy, M. Frémy on the use of 
osseine as food, M. Riche on the use of black puddings of 
ox-blood. Inthe Revue des Cours Scientifigues we also find 
some important papers by M. Bouchardaton the food supply 
of Paris, and a paper by the same author on the sanitary 
condition of the city during the siege, and during the same 
months of the preceding year. M. Berthelot has con- 
tributed some important papers on the force of various 
explosive substances, both solid, liquid, and gaseous. 
These papers are well worthy the attention of our war 
authorities. There is also a paper on dynamite, by M. 
Champion, and on the ignition of gunpowder at a dis- 
tance by means of electricity. The subject of balloons 
and ballooning, of course, engages a good deal of dis- 
cussion. M. Marey contributes several important papers 
on the motions of birds during flight, accompanied by 
graphic representations of them, registered somewhat 
after the manner of the vibrations of a tuning fork, and 
shown by sinuous lines. The diagram representing the 
vertical oscillations of a wild duck during flight is very 
striking. Beyond these papers there is nothing of much 
importance. 
Here, for example, are the principal papers of one num- 
ber (December 5th) taken at random :— 
* Phiwsophie Méthodigue, par J. de Strada, a work too little known in 
this country, 

M. Milne-Edwards discusses the nutritive value of or- 
ganic substances contained in bones, and the proper 
rations for sustaining the human body in a perfect state 
of health; M. Chevreul makes observations upon M, 
Frémy’s paper on the use of osseine as food; M. Gazeau 
details various experiments on the nutritive properties of 
cocoa leaves; M. Montier treats of the specific heat of 
gases under constant volume; M. Riche of the prepara- 
tion of osseine and gelatine; and M. Castelhaz of the 
refining of crude tallow. 
The future historian of science will wonder when he 
reads in the Compiles Rendus for January 9, 1871 :— 
M. Chevreul donne lecture 4 |’Académie de la déclaration 
suivante : 
‘Le jardin des plantes médicinales, fondé a Paris par édit du 
Roi Louis XIII. Ja date du mois de janvier, 1626. 
‘*Devenu le Muséum d’Histoire naturelle par décret de * 
Convention du 10 dejuin 1793. : ; 
“‘Fut bombardé, 
**Sous le régne de Guillaume It roi de Prusse, Comte de 
Bismark chancelier, 
oo Par l’armée Prussienne, dans la nuit du 8 au 9 de janvier, 
1871. 
‘*Jusque-la, il avait été respecté de tous les partis et de tous 
les pouvoirs nationaux et étrangers. 
‘*E. CHEVREUL, Directeur.” 
He will grieve when he reads “ M. Le Président annonce 
a PAcadémie la douloureuse nouvelle, malheureusement 
trés-probable, dela mort du. . . .” occurring too 
often in what should be only a record of the living 
and of their work. So we grieve : and yet more when we 
see the intellectual resources and energies of a great 
country paralysed, and the whole current of its active 
thought diverted no man knows whither ; while its schools 
and colleges are empty, and many of those who should 
be in them have been killed untimely to satisfy the 
necessities of war. G. F. RODWELL 

AMERICAN NOTES 
WE learn from Harpers Weekly that the fourth volume 
of the “ Report of the Geological Survey of Illinois,” 
which has been in progress for several years past, under 
the direction of Prof. A. H. Worthen, has just been pub- 
lished. Like its predecessors, it is a handsome book, 
well illustrated, and containing much important matter 
relating to the geology and physical features of the State. 
This volume is occupied by a detailed account from 
assistants in the survey in regard to particular counties in 
the State, followed by systematic papers—one upon the 
fossil fishes by Prof. J. S. Newberry and Prof. Worthen, 
and the other upon fossil plants by Prof. Lesquereaux, 
illustrated by a number of well engraved steel plates. 
The economical value of such a survey to the State, con- 
ducted with the spirit and efficiency which have marked 
Prof. Worthen’s administration from the beginning, is 
exceedingly great, and cannot be estimated in dollars 
and cents. Not merely does it furnish a fund of informa- 
tion to the residents of Illinois, but it supplies an official 
guarantee to others in regard to the resources of the State 
which could not be obtained in any other way.—We have, 
in a previous article, referred to some interesting specula- 
tions by Prof. Shaler, of Cambridge, upon the formation 
of the New England coast ; and we find in the proceed- 
ings of the Boston Society of Natural History for February 
last some additional remarks by him on the same subject. 
He considers that the Chesapeake and Delaware bays, 
like many of the deep gorges in Switzerland and else- 
where, were formed by the action of ice, and that the 
existence of Cape Hatteras is due to the uplifting of the 
rocks on which Richmond is situated. The sand-bars on 
the coast he believes to have been formed by the material 
dug out of the Delaware and Chesapeake bays by this ice 
action, and worked southward by the united force of the 
floods and currents. He finds that, after we pass these 
[April 20, 1871 ; 
i 
