XXXV111 



Auguste de la Bive contributed evidence in favour of the general con- 

 clusion that it is as impossible to create force as to create matter. He 

 also gave much attention to the cause of the Aurora Borealis, taking up 

 the subject where Arago had left it; and by means of an apparatus 

 arranged by himself he was able to show the chief peculiarities of this 

 phenomenon. By the passage of electricity through a rarefied gas he 

 caused the appearance of a luminous ring animated with a rotatory 

 movement round this same pole. This experiment is so remarkable that 

 it will always be admired even by those physicists who, considering the 

 aurora to have its source higher up than the terrestrial atmosphere, at- 

 tribute to it a cosmical origin, which De la Bive would never admit. 



Shortly before he was attacked by the malady which finally killed him, 

 he wrote to Dumas, " Aidez-moi a defendre une theorie fondee sur des 

 faits incontestables ; elle etait deja celle de Franklin et dArago, avec 

 moins de precision. Les auteurs qui ne songent qu'aux aurores bril- 

 lantes oublient que presque tous les jours il y en a qui se passent sans 

 eclat, dans les regions polaires ; je ne connais pas un seul observateur 

 place dans nos contrees septentrionales qui n'ait adopte les vues que j'ai 

 exposees. N'est-ce pas une presomption en leur faveur que d'avoir pour 

 elles tous ceux qui vivent au milieu des phenomenes qu'elles cherchent 

 a expliquer ? Faudrait-il les abandonner, quand on a seulement contre 

 elles ceux qui ne les observent que de loin en loin, sous l'impression 

 aveuglante d'une surprise qui ne laisse pas toujours une entiere liberte 

 d'appreciation ? " 



In connexion with this subject we may mention that Auguste de la 

 Bive and his friend M. de Marignac made experiments to show that 

 ozone is modified oxygen, oxygen which has undergone a change by 

 the action of electricity. 



The investigations of Auguste de la Bive gave rise to a new and 

 now flourishing branch of industry, Galvanic Gilding. Hitherto the 

 only effectual method known of gilding bronze was by the use of 

 mercury; but the process was most injurious to the workmen, as 

 their hands came in contact with the dangerous metal, and their chests 

 were exposed to the action of mercury vapour during the heating opera- 

 tion. A prize had been offered by the French Academy to any one who 

 could find a method which should remove the dangers from this trade ; 

 but nobody had hitherto solved the problem. The Academy has since 

 been more fortunate. The process of galvanic gilding has been developed ; 

 and we must not forget that the learned and disinterested physicist 

 Auguste de la Bive with his own hands gilded the first pieces by the 

 electric process. He it was who showed how to put an end to the dis- 

 tressing bodily and mental sufferings of these workmen. For this dis- 

 covery, published in 1840, he received the Prix Monthyon of 3000 francs 

 from the French Academy. 



A. de la Bive made numerous observations on the causes of the 

 second reflections seen at sunset on Mont BJanc, and attributed them to 



