NATURE 



465 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1907. 



MARIGKAC'S COLLECTED PAPERS. 

 CEitvrcs completes de Jean-Charles Galissard de 

 Marignac. Edited by E. Ador. In two vols. 

 Vol. i. (1840-1860), pp. lv + 701, with a portrait; 

 vol. ii. (1860-1SS7), pp. 839. (Geneva : Ch. 

 Egsimann ^t Cie. ; Paris : Masson et Cie. ; Berlin : 

 Friedlander und Sohn.) 



AMQNG the great chemists of the nineteenth 

 century, and especially those engaged with 

 inorganic chemistry, Jean-Charles Galissard de 

 Marignac takes high rank, and in the notable 

 advances which were made in chemical science 

 during his lifetime he played a conspicuous part. 

 The pride which his native city felt in his long and 

 fruitful career has found expression in this sump- 

 tuous edition of his published papers, a worthy 

 monument to the untiring energy that characterised 

 him all his life so long as strength remained. It 

 has been issued under the auspices of the Soci(^t(5 

 de Physique et d'Histoire naturelle. The editing 

 has been entrusted to the capable hands of his son- 

 in-law and, for a time, colleague, Prof. E. Ador, 

 who has executed what was evidently a labour of 

 love with reverent care, and has contributed the 

 interesting sketch of the life and works of Marignac 

 which prefaces the first volume. 



Marignac's personal life seems to have been 

 singularly uneventful. Sprung from a French family 

 which had settled in Geneva early in the eighteenth 

 century, he was born in that city in 1817. With the 

 view of entering the French service as a mining 

 engineer, he underwent the course at the Ecole poly- 

 technique at Paris, and in accordance with the 

 enlightened custom that prevailed in that country was 

 dispatched at the end of his training on a scientific 

 mission to foreign countries in order to study their 

 methods. While at Stockholm he made the acquaint- 

 ance of Berzelius, and there can be little doubt this 

 meeting had a profound influence on the course of 

 his life and turned his bent more definitely towards 

 chemistn,". At any rate, when, soon after his re- 

 turn to France, he was offered the chair of chemistry 

 at the Academy of Geneva, he, despite the, from a 

 worldly point of view, far better prospects that 

 awaited him in France, accepted the offer without 

 hesitation ; and, as it turned out, he filled the post 

 for thirty-eight years, until in 1878 failing health 

 compelled him to tender his resignation. 



It is pleasant to note the sympathetic consideration 

 which Marignac experienced from the French 

 Government. He was permitted to vacate his post 

 and yet to retain the title of Ing^nieur des Mines, 

 and in the course of his letter the Minister of Public 

 Works remarked : — 



" Le gouvernement francais ne peut voir qu'avec 

 faveur que le gouvernement de Geneve vienne chercher 

 en France les hommes auxquels il confie le soin de 

 repandre les lumieres de la science, et, en remplissant 

 avec distinction le poste qui vous est confie, ce sera 

 encore un service indirect que vous rendrez h la 

 France." 



NO. 1975, ^^^- 7^] 



Shy and retiring by nature, he seemed to find happi- 

 ness only in his laboratory ; indeed, it was with con- 

 siderable reluctance that he tore himself away for a 

 few days at the time of his marriage. To quote Prof. 

 Ador :— 



" Marie en 1845, c'est k peine s'il consent :« 

 s'eloigner pendant quelques jours de son laboratoire ; 

 il emporte chaque matin un petit pam qu'il d6vore 

 i la hate, ne pouvant se decider b. interrompre ses 

 travaux au milieu du jour "; 



a picture of a thinker, absorbed in his work and 

 almost oblivious of every-day life. He shunned any 

 position which brought him before the public paze, 

 and to the end found it irksome to lecture before a 

 fresh generation of students. 



The conditions under which most of Marignac's 

 work was performed would be rather a shock to 

 those accustomed to the greater luxury of these latter 

 days. His laboratory is described by Prof. Ador 

 thus : — 



" Cette m<5chante cuisine enfouie dans le sous-sol, 

 sombre en plein midi, avec ses cornues de gres _ou 

 de verre qui lui donnaient Pair d'une officme 

 d'alchemiste." 



Yet amid such forbidding surroundings were car- 

 ried out elaborate researches with a care and 

 completeness such as would be with difficulty 

 surpassed at the present day even with the advan- 

 tage of the improved apparatus now available. 

 More commodious premises were eventually provided 

 in 1873 when the academy was transformed into 

 the university; but not long afterwards he was com- 

 pelled to retire, and, although for a few years he 

 continued work in his private laboratory, his strength 

 at length failed so completely that he was practically 

 confined to his couch. He died in 1894. The excel- 

 lence of his work was recognised by the numerous 

 honours conferred upon him; among them we inay 

 note that he was elected in 1881 a corresponding 

 member of the Royal Society, and received in i886 

 the Davy medal. 



At the time when Marignac went to Geneva, the 

 atomic weight of few of the elements had been at 

 all accurately determined, and although some con- 

 fidence might be felt in the numbers obtained by such 

 a master as Berzelius, it was imperative that they 

 should be confirmed by independent investigators and 

 by other methods. There was at the time consider- 

 able speculation as to the question of the rigid appli- 

 cation of Prout's law. Perceiving the pressing need 

 for further trustworthy determinations of these funda- 

 mental data, on which the whole fabric of chemical 

 science is based, Marignac resolved to devote his 

 scientific energy to this important investigation. As 

 was pointed out by Stokes, the president of the Royal 

 Society, when bestowing on him the Davy medal, his 

 work was the more important since he gave so 

 much of his attention to the atomic weights of the 

 more common elements on which the determination 

 of new atomic weights is generally made to depend. 

 In the whole of his researches he exercised the 

 greatest care in considering the possibilities of error 

 which might have occurred in the operations of 



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