1809.] 
themselves, from the assurance which it 
gives of future discoveries. All these 
hypotheses, all the more or less ingenious 
suppositions, which were so much in 
vogue during the first two-thirds of the 
preceding century, are now rejected by all 
men of real knowledge, and only procure 
for their authors a transitory reputation. 
Experience alone, precise experiments, 
made with weight, measure, and compa~ 
rison, of all the substances employed, 
and of all those obtained, now constitute 
the only legitimate mode of reasoning and 
demonstration. 
Thus, although the natural sciences 
are not yet ruducible to calculation, they 
may still be submitted to a mathema- 
tical spirit; and by the circumspection 
with which they advance, they are no. 
longer liable to have the same ground to 
go over again; all their propositions 
are established with certainty, and be- 
come so many solid foundations for the 
remaining superstructure. Neither is it 
by a partiality, which might perhaps be 
excused, that your Imperial Majesty will 
find the names of learned Frenchmen, in 
the first ranks of almost every branch of 
the natural sciences ; the voice of Europe 
assigns them this rank, as well as we ; 
and even in those parts, where it did not 
please chance, that our countrymen 
should make the principal discoveries, 
the manner in which they have received 
and followed them, in all their conse- 
quences, places them very near the first 
inventors. 
We may, we ought to declare it at this 
solemn moment, whilst we are their or- 
gans with the august chief of the state, 
that during these twenty years, winle 
unexampled prodigies of devotedness, 
of valor, and of genius, spread through 
every country of the universe, the names 
of the heroes of France; those who 
cultivate the sciences in this happy coun- 
try, did not remain unworthy of having 
also a share in the glory of the nation. 
The progress of the practical sciences, 
50 intimately connected with the na- 
tural sciences, is included with them 
in our report; and it is accordingly 
by an abridged history of medicine, of 
agriculture, of the arts and trades, that 
we terminate it. But we had not the 
means of rendering this history so com- 
plete, as that of the theoretic sciences. 
Medicine and agriculture are not en- 
tirely confined to books ; even the frst, 
though generally more learned than the 
other, differs with each practitioner: 
all its doctrines, all its processes, would 
MonruLy Mae, 192, 
Progress of the Sciences since 1780+ 
505 
be nothing without the genius, and the 
talents, of the individuals. 
Agriculture has on its side this peculiar 
difiiculty, that it is interwoven with the 
political situation, with the system of 
taxes, the customs, and the temporary 
state of comimercial relations: thus the 
most certain processes, are often yet 
very far from affording the public all 
the advantages which may be derived 
from them. ; 
The present period has, however, pro= 
duced:in each of these sciences, disgo- 
veries the most important and the best 
attested. 
Were the vaccine inocculation the 
only discovery which the medical art 
had to produce, it would be suficient to 
reflect everlasting honour on our times, in 
the history of the sciences; as well as to 
immortalize the name of Jenner, by as 
signing to him an eminent rank amongst 
the benefactors of mankind. 
The acid famigations proposed by M. 
Morvean, by destroying the gerins of 
contagion, still more frequent than those 
which vaccination atiacks, render ser= 
vices as useful perhaps, though less ap- 
parent, and justify the honorable recom- 
pence which your Imperial Majesty has 
decreed to their author. 
Your Majesty will find in our report, 
an abstract of the other works of medical 
men, of the different maladies, of the 
new treatments which have bees intro- 
duced, of the new means which the 
sciences have furnished to the arts; you 
willalso see, in the chapter on agriculture, 
and in those on botany and zoology, the - 
new species, or varieties of animals, or of 
useful plants, with the new processes 
put in practice, for the management of 
them. 
The fear of encroaching on the mo- 
ments which your Majesty is pleased to 
grant us, prevents us from referring pare 
ticularly here to the labours of our ree 
spectable Vice-president, M. Tenon, on 
hospitals; the classic works of M. Corvie 
sart, on the organic diseases of the 
heart; of M. Hallé, on Hygiene; of M. 
Sabathier, on operations; of M, Pinel, 
on insanity, and the distribution of 
maladies; of M, Portal, on phthysis, 
rickets, and pathological anatomy; of 
M. Dessessaris, on the diseases of chil- 
dren; lastly, te the new disciphne introe 
‘duced into military surgery, by men ime 
pelled by 2, courage similar to that of the 
warriors whom they relieve. From the 
same motive we omit, thoagh with reluc- 
tance, entering into the details of the po- 
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