of n, F. RegnaulL 



273 



meeting of the Academy, where he could still observe the 

 progress of science in the younger generation. His own 

 work was done, and he was soon to follow his great pre- 

 decessor, Rumford, who had died in that very place 

 many years before. 



Regnault died on the 19th of January, 1878, exactly 

 seven years from the date of his son's death, and in the 

 sixty-eighth year of his own age. His funeral was attended 

 by a long procession, including some of the most distin- 

 guished men of science and many of the populace, to 

 whom he was endeared by his benevolent character. 

 Representatives from the College of France, the School of 

 Mines, the Academy of Sciences and the Polytechnic 

 School, acted as pall-bearers ; and addresses in behalf of 

 each of these institutions, with all of which Regnault had 

 been connected, were made by men who had been his 

 associates, and his pupils. 



Thus passed away one of the most remarkable scientific 

 men that France has produced during the present century. 

 "We do not propose to speak of his moral character, good 

 and noble as it was ; nor yet of those qualities by which 

 he gained his position as the foremost experimentalist of 

 his age ; the qualities of industry, patience, rectitude of 

 purpose, and fairness in dealing with his predecessors' 

 work. We shall simply sketch the outline of his scien- 

 tific labors, and strive to show what he accomplished 

 towards determining the constants of thermal physics. 



n. 



HIS SCIENTIFIC WORK. 

 Regnault's most important work, as we before remarked, 

 is found in the 21st volume of the Memoirs of the Aca- 

 demy. This comprises ten distinct memoirs, each of 

 which contains either a determination of an important 

 physical constant, or the enunciation of some new prin- 



