Au^. 27, 1874] 



NATURE 



345 



On Saturday evening a lecture on the Transit of Venus 

 was delivered by M. Faye, before a very large audience 

 at the Cercle du Nord, a magnificent building, richly 

 fitted up. The accomplished astronomer referred mostly 

 to the arrangements at the French stations, deeply re- 

 gretting that all civilised nations had not been united 

 into a kind of federation for working in combination at a 

 problem of such magnitude ; he hopes that it will be so in 

 1SS2. He insisted upon the importance of photography, 

 which has been used to such good purpose by the 

 Americans, and he trusts that in future times photography 

 will take the lead in such observations. He gave inter- 

 esting details as to the Yokohama station, to which a Japan- 

 ese prince educated in France will be attached as a photo- 

 grapher. The consequence will be that M. Jannsen and 

 his associates will be admitted into the interior sea of 

 Japan, where, up to the present moment, not a single 

 foreign vessel has ever sailed. 



Owing to the coincidence of the meeting of the British 

 Association at Belfast, scarcely any English saznuis are 

 present here. The only British member I have seen up 

 to the present moment is Dr. Sylvester, the celebrated 

 mathematician. He has been nominated the honorary 

 president of his section, the acting president being M. 

 Catalan, who, though a Frenchman, is regarded as a 

 representative of Belgium. Ten years ago he settled in 

 Li(?ge, where he is a professor in the University. 



The interest felt by the people generally is not nearly 

 so great as in the case of the British Association in 

 England. The inhabitants of the city do not appear to 

 understand fully the extent of the honour conferi'ed on 

 them. A /rai/i dc plaisir has been organised to visit 

 distant workshops, but Lille workshops have not been 

 opened for inspection. 



Newspapers are glad to publish the transactions of the 

 several sections, but the Association has not authorised 

 any one of them to publish them at full length. 



Last Saturday a most interesting experiment was tried 

 with success on the Northern line. M. Giffard, the in- 

 ventor of the injector, has constructed a new waggon 

 which is suspended by powerful springs at both ex- 

 tremities, thus completely avoiding oscillation. It is 

 very easy to read and even to write in these new carriages. 

 The invention will be exhibited very shortly to the 

 English public. W. de Fonvielle 



LiUe, Aug. 23 



OPENING ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, 

 M. WURTZ, AT THE MEETING OF THE 

 FRENCH ASSOCIATION 



The Theory of Atoms in the General Conception of the 

 Universe 



■pRANCIS BACON conceived the idea of a society of 

 men devoted to the culture of science. In his " New 

 Atlantis," in which he describes the organisation of this society 

 and its influence upon the destinies of a wisely governed people, 

 he shows it rising to the dignity of a State institution. The ])ro- 

 gress of civilisation by the searci for truth, and tnith discovered in 

 the order of nature by experiment and observation — such are the 

 ends proposed and the means made use of. Thus, in an age 

 when tlie syllogism was still supreme, and which was firmly held 

 beneath the scholastic yoke, the Ent^lish Chancellor assigned to 

 science at once its true method and its mission in the world. 



Tlie plan of Bacon embraced all branches of human know- 

 ledge. The land was overrun by a multitude of observers, en- 

 gaged, some in studying tlie monuments of the past, the lan- 

 guage, the manners, the liistory of the nations ; others in 

 observing the configuration and the productions of the soil, 

 noting the superficial structure of the globe and the traces of its 

 revolutions, collecting all the data concerning nature, the organi- 

 sation and distribution of plants and animals. Other men, 

 located in vai ious regions, cultivated the exact sciences. Towers 

 were constructed for the observation of stars and meteors ; vast 

 edifices, arranged for tie study of physical and mechanical laws, 



contained machines which supplied the deficiency of our forces, 

 and instruments which added to the precision of the senses and 

 rendered abstract demonstrations sensible. This immense labour 

 was uninterrupted, co-ordinated, controlled ; it had its origin in 

 self-abnegation, it was regulated by precision, and had time for 

 its sanction. Thus was it fruitful. 



Such was the idea of Francis Bacon. To observe all things; 

 by the rational comparison of these observations to disclose the 

 hidden connections of phenomena, .ind to rise by induction to 

 the discovery of their real nature and their causes, all with the 

 view " of extending the empire of man over entire nature, and of 

 executing everything possible for him to do ;" such is the object 

 which he has pointed out to us ; such is the function of science. 



This great exploration of the earth which he desired to institute, 

 this patient and exact research of the laws of the universe, this 

 deliberate intervention of science in the affairs of life and of 

 the universe,— could all this be the work of his own time? He 

 knew it too well to venture to hope it himself, and it is on this 

 account, doubtless, that he placed the fortunate country which 

 enjoyed so noble an institution in the solitude of the great 

 ocean. 



Two centuries and a half ago the conception of Bacon was 

 regarded as a noble Utopia ; to-day it is a reality. That magni- 

 ficent programme which he then drew out, is ours, gentlemen ; 

 ours, not in the narrow sense of the word, for I extend this pro- 

 gramme to all who, in modem times and in all countries, give 

 themselves to the search for truth, to all workers in science, 

 humble or great, obscure or famous, who form in reality, in all 

 parts of the globe and without distinction of nationality, that vast 

 association which was the dream of Francis Bacon. Yes, science is 

 now a neutral field, a commonwealth, placed in a serene region, 

 far above the political arena, inaccessible, I wish I could say, 

 to the strifes of parties and of peoples ; in a word, this property 

 is the patrimony of humanity. It is, too, the principal conquest 

 of this century, which my illustrious predecessor characterised, 

 with so much justice, as the century of science. 



Modem generations are spectators, indeed, 'of a magnificent 

 spectacle. For a century past the hunran mind has directed an 

 immense effort to the study of the phenomena and the law s of 

 the physical universe. Hence an astonishing development of all 

 the sciences founded on observation and experiment. New ideas 

 which have arisen in our days in the correlation and conservation 

 of forces have been like a revelation to some of these sciences. 

 Mechanics, physics, chemistry, physiology itself, have found at 

 once a peinl ifapfiii and a bond of connection. And this power- 

 ful flight of ideas has been sustained by the progress of the 

 methods, I should say by the more careful exactness of observa- 

 tions, the perfect delicacy of experiments, the more rigorcus seve- 

 rity of deductions. These are the springs of this movement which 

 hurry along the sciences, and of which we are the astonished 

 and moved witnesses. It is to propagate it broadcast over our 

 country that we hold, each year, this parliament, to which are 

 invited all who take part or are interested in the war against the 

 unknown. Science is indeed a war against the unknown ; for, 

 if in literature it is enough to give expression, and in art a body, 

 to conceptions or beauties deposited either in the human mind 

 or in nature, it is not so in science, where truth is deeply 

 hidden. She must be conquered, she must be stolen, like the 

 Promethean fire. 



It is of some of these conquests that I wish to speak to-day, full 

 of doubt and apprehension in presence of so great a task. To 

 respond to the demands of his position and to follow noble exam- 

 ples, your president ought, at the beginning of this session and of 

 the ceremonies which inaugurate our young association, to trace 

 the progress accomplished in the sciences, mark by a few bold 

 lines the various routes over which it has recently run, and the 

 culminating points which it has attained. I shiink from such a 

 programme : if it does not exceed the powers of some of my 

 colleagues, and doubtless of some among you, it greatly surpasses 

 mine. Less justified and less daring than was Condorcet at 

 the end of last century, I only pjrceive the outlines and some 

 Ijright i)alches of the sketch which he attempted to draw ; and 

 to see it accomplished, I shall call to my assistance these who 

 will follow me in the honourable and perilous post I now occupy. 



I shall confine myself, then, gentlemen, to speaking to you of 

 what I know, or of what I think I know, by directing your 

 attention to the science to -A-hich I have devoted my life. 



Chemistry has not merely grown, it has been regenerated 

 since Lavoisier. You know the work of that immortal master. 

 His labours in connection with combustion gave to our science 

 an immovable basis by fi,xing at once the notion of simple bodies 



