353 



Hospital of that town ; and he subsequently, in 1816, took a degree 

 in medicine in the University. He then returned to his paternal 

 roof at Metz, with the intention of settling, and of applying himself 

 diligently to the practice of his profession. But on being restored 

 to the scene of his youthful occupations, the renew^ed sight of those 

 philosophical instruments to which so many delightful associations 

 were attached, rekindled in full force the innate predilection for the 

 piiysical sciences, which, during so long an interval, had lain dor- 

 mant in his breast. The charms of science, arrayed in her most 

 attractive colours, glittered before his imagination, and were con- 

 trasted, in his ardent mind, with the cares, the toils, and the anxie- 

 ties of the profession in which he was embarking. He yielded to 

 the powerful fascination, and disregarding all considerations of 

 prudence, took the irrevocable step of abandoning the prospects 

 which were opening in a career to which his youth had been 

 devoted, and by which alone it had, till then, been his ambition to 

 earn fortune, reputation and independence. Confiding in his know- 

 ledge of Acoustics, which was ever his favourite study, and in w^hich 

 he conceived he had made discoveries, he quitted his provincial do- 

 micile and repaired to the metropolis, as to the mart where his ac- 

 quisitions would be best valued. He arrived in Paris with but scanty 

 means of immediate support, without a friend, and unprovided with 

 a single letter of recommendation. But Fortune took him by the hand, 

 and favoured his first endeavour to obtain notice. He presented 

 himself to Biot, and communicated to him his views, and the results 

 of his researches in Acoustics. He met with the kindest reception 

 from that philosopher, who had himself been occupied with similar 

 inquiries, and was well qualified to appreciate the merits of Savart. 

 Biot was ever after his friend and patron, and it was chiefly through 

 his influence that Savart was, in the year 1820, appointed Professor 

 of Natural Philosophy in one of the Institutions at Paris ; an oflftce 

 which he continued to hold till the year 1827, when he was nomi- 

 nated a Member of the Academy of Sciences. Soon after this he 

 was associated with Thenard, as Conservator of the Cabinet of Phy- 

 sics of the College of France. Thus raised to a state of independ- 

 ence, he had full leisure to devote himself to the science he had ever 

 particularly cherished, and of which his labours have greatly ex- 

 tended the boundaries. His admirable researches on the laws of 

 the vibrations of solid bodies of dift'erent forms and kinds, and in 

 particular, of cords, of membranes, of rods, whether straight, or bent, 

 or of an annular shape ; of flat discs, and of solids of revolution, both 

 solid and hollow, have furnished results of great value and import- 

 ance. His investigation of the structure and functions of the seve- 

 ral parts of the vocal organs, and his theory of the voice, both in 

 man and in the lower animals, show great originality of research, 

 and have thrown considerable light on a very difficult department 

 of Physiology. 



Savart was elected, in the year 1839, a Foreign Member of the 

 Royal Society, an honour which his unconquerable prejudice against 

 the English, and everything emanating from England, prevented 



