REAUMUR 245 



in that city. After beginning his education in his 

 native place, he went on to the Jesuits at Poitiers, and 

 afterwards studied law at Bourges. A propensity to 

 observe nature then took possession of him, and ample 

 means enabled him to pursue this taste with youthful 

 eagerness. He laid a foundation for his future career in 

 the serious study of mathematics, and when he felt 

 himself prepared to try his strength with professed 

 naturalists and physicists, betook himself to Paris. This 

 was in 1703, when he was not yet twenty years old. 

 President H^nault, a relative, made him known to men 

 of science, and in 1708, being then twenty-four and 

 having already contributed some geometrical papers to 

 the Academy of Sciences, he was admitted to that 

 learned body. 



" For nearly fifty years Reaumur was one of the most 

 active and useful members ; his labours dealt with 

 industrial arts, general physics, and natural history 

 successively, and hardly a year passed in which he did 

 not publish some memoirs of great importance or 

 interest. He was early pledged to co-operate in a 

 description of the mechanical arts, which the Academy 

 had undertaken. Not confining himself to a mere 

 record of the state of the various industries, he sought 

 to improve them by fresh applications of scientific 

 principles, while at the same time he enlarged our 

 knowledge of natural phenomena by his industrial 

 experience. In his account of rope-making (1711), he 

 proved by conclusive experiments that, contrary to the 

 prevalent opinion, torsion diminishes the strength of 

 cords. In 1713, when engaged upon a description of 

 gold wire-drawing, he demonstrated the extraordinary 

 ductility of certain metals. In 1715 the investigation 

 of the colours of false pearls made him acquainted with 



