Scientific Culture, and Other Essays Part 7

William Barton Rogers was born at Philadelphia, on the 7th of December, 1804. His father, Patrick Kerr Rogers, was a native of Newton Stewart, in the north of Ireland; but while a student at Trinity College, Dublin, becoming an object of suspicion on account of his sympathy with the Rebellion of 1798, he emigrated to this country, and finished his education in the University of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, where he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine.

Here he married Hannah Blythe, a Scotch lady--who was at the time living with her aunt, Mrs. Ramsay--and settled himself in his profession in a house on Ninth Street, opposite to the University; and in this house William B. Rogers was born. He was the second of four sons--James, William, Henry, and Robert--all of whom became distinguished as men of science.

Patrick Kerr Rogers, finding that his prospects of medical practice in Philadelphia had been lessened in consequence of a protracted absence in Ireland, made necessary by the death of his father, removed to Baltimore; but soon afterward accepted the Professors.h.i.+p of Chemistry and Physics in William and Mary College, Virginia, made vacant by the resignation of the late Robert Hare; and it is a fact worthy of notice that, while he succeeded Dr. Hare at William and Mary College, his eldest son, James, succeeded Dr. Hare at the University of Pennsylvania.

At William and Mary College the four brothers Rogers were educated; and on the death of the father, at Ellicott Mills, in 1828, William B.

Rogers succeeded to the professors.h.i.+p thus made vacant.

He had already earned a reputation as a teacher by a course of lectures before the Maryland Inst.i.tute in Baltimore during the previous year, and after his appointment at once entered on his career as a scientific investigator. At this period he published a paper on "Dew," and, in connection with his brother Henry, another paper on the "Voltaic Battery"--both subjects directly connected with his professors.h.i.+p. But his attention was early directed to questions of chemical geology; and he wrote, while at William and Mary College, a series of articles for the "Farmer's Register" on the "Green Sands and Marls of Eastern Virginia," and their value as fertilizers. Next we find the young professor going before the Legislature of Virginia, and, while modestly presenting his own discoveries, making them the occasion for urging upon that body the importance of a systematic geological survey for developing the resources of the State. So great was the scientific reputation that Professor Rogers early acquired by such services, that in 1835 he was called to fill the important Professors.h.i.+p of Natural Philosophy and Geology in the University of Virginia; and during the same year he was appointed State Geologist of Virginia, and began those important investigations which will always a.s.sociate his name with American geology.

Professor Rogers remained at the head of the Geological Survey of Virginia until it was discontinued, in 1842, and published a series of very valuable annual reports. As was antic.i.p.ated, the survey led to a large acc.u.mulation of material, and to numerous discoveries of great local importance. As this was one of the earliest geological surveys undertaken in the United States, its directors had in great measure to devise the methods and lay out the plans of investigation which have since become general. This is not the place, however, for such details; but there are four or five general results of Professor Rogers's geological work at this period which have exerted a permanent influence on geological science, and which should therefore be briefly noticed.

Some of these results were first published in the "American Journal of Science"; others were originally presented to the a.s.sociation of American Geologists and Naturalists, and published in its "Transactions." Professor Rogers took a great interest in the organization of this a.s.sociation in 1840, presided over its meeting in 1845, and again, two years later, when it was expanded into the American a.s.sociation for the Advancement of Science.

In connection with his brother Robert, Professor William B. Rogers was the first to investigate the solvent action of water--especially when charged with carbonic acid--on various minerals and rocks; and by showing the extent of this action in nature, and its influence in the formation of mineral deposits of various kinds, he was one of the first to observe and interpret the important cla.s.s of facts which are the basis of chemical geology.

Another important result of Professor Rogers's geological work was to show that the condition of any coal-bed stands in a close genetic relation to the amount of disturbance to which the enclosing strata have been submitted, the coal becoming harder and containing less volatile matter as the evidence of disturbance increases. This generalization, which seems to us now almost self-evident--understanding, as we do, more of the history of the formation of coal--was with Professor Rogers an induction from a great ma.s.s of observed facts.

By far, however, the most memorable contribution of Professor Rogers to geology was that made in connection with Henry D. Rogers, in a paper ent.i.tled "The Laws of Structure of the more Disturbed Zones of the Earth's Crust," presented by the two brothers at the meeting of the a.s.sociation of American Geologists and Naturalists, held at Boston in 1842. This paper was the first presentation of what may be called in brief the "Wave Theory of Mountain Chains." This theory was deduced by the brothers Rogers from an extended study of the Appalachian Chain in Pennsylvania and Virginia, and was supported by numerous geological sections and by a great ma.s.s of facts. The hypothesis which they offered as an explanation of the origin of the great mountain waves may not be generally received; but the general fact, that the structure of mountain chains is alike in all the essential features which the brothers Rogers first pointed out, has been confirmed by the observations of Murchison in the Ural, of Darwin in the Andes, and of the Swiss geologists in the Alps. "In the Appalachians the wave structure is very simple, and the same is true in all corrugated districts where the crust movements have been simple, and have acted in one direction only. But where the elevating forces have acted in different directions at different times, causing interference of waves like a chopped sea, as in the Swiss Alps and the mountains of Wales or c.u.mberland, the undulations are disguised, and are with extreme difficulty made out." The wave theory of mountain chains was the first important contribution to dynamical and structural geology which had been brought forward in this country. It excited at the time great interest, as well from the novelty of the views as from the eloquence with which they were set forth; and to-day it is still regarded as one of the most important advances in orographic geology.

A marked feature of mountain regions is that rupturing of the strata called faults; and another of the striking geological generalizations of the brothers Rogers is what may be called the law of the distribution of faults. They showed that faults do not occur on gentle waves, but in the most compressed flexures of the mountain chains, which in the act of moving have snapped or given way at the summit where the bend is sharpest, the less inclined side being shoved up on the plane of the fault, this plane being generally parallel to, if it does not coincide with, the axis plane; and, further, that "the direction of these faults generally follows the run of the line of elevation of the mountains, the length and vertical displacement depending on the strength of the disturbing force."

The last of the general geological results to which we referred above was published under the name of William B. Rogers only. It was based on the observed positions of more than fifty thermal springs in the Appalachian belt, occurring in an area of about fifteen thousand square miles, which were shown to issue from anticlinal axes and faults, or from points very near such lines; and in connection with these springs it was further shown that there was a great preponderance of nitrogen in the gases which the waters held in solution.

It must be remembered that, during the time when this geological work was accomplished, Professor Rogers was an active teacher in the University of Virginia, giving through a large part of the year almost daily lectures either on physics or geology. Those who met him in his after-life in various relations in Boston, and were often charmed by his wonderful power of scientific exposition, can readily understand the effect he must have produced, when in the prime of manhood, upon the enthusiastic youths who were brought under his influence. His lecture-room was always thronged. As one of his former students writes, "All the aisles would be filled, and even the windows crowded from the outside. In one instance I remember the crowd had a.s.sembled long before the hour named for the lecture, and so filled the hall that the professor could only gain admittance through a side entrance leading from the rear of the hall through the apparatus-room. These facts show how he was regarded by the students of the University of Virginia. His manner of presenting the commonest subject in science--clothing his thoughts, as he always did, with a marvelous fluency and clearness of expression and beauty of diction--caused the warmest admiration, and often aroused the excitable nature of Southern youths to the exhibition of enthusiastic demonstrations of approbation. Throughout Virginia, and indeed the entire South, his former students are scattered, who even now regard it as one of the highest privileges of their lives to have attended his lectures."

Such was the impression which Professor Rogers left at the University of Virginia, that, when he returned, thirty-five years later, to aid in the celebration of the semi-centennial, he was met with a perfect ovation.

Although the memories of the civil war, which had intervened, and Professor Rogers's known sympathies with the Northern cause, might well have damped enthusiasm, yet the presence of the highly honored teacher was sufficient to rekindle the former admiration; and, in the language of a contemporary Virginia newspaper, "the old students beheld before them the same William B. Rogers who thirty-five years before had held them spellbound in his cla.s.s of natural philosophy; and, as the great orator warmed up, these men forgot their age; they were again young, and showed their enthusiasm as wildly as when, in days of yore, enraptured by his eloquence, they made the lecture-room of the University ring with their applause."

Besides his geological papers, Professor Rogers published, while at the University of Virginia, a number of important chemical contributions, relating chiefly to new and improved methods in chemical a.n.a.lysis and research. These papers were published in connection with his youngest brother, Robert E. Rogers, now become his colleague as Professor of Chemistry and Materia Medica in the University; and such were the singularly intimate relations between the brothers that it is often impossible to dissociate their scientific work. Among these were papers "On a New Process for obtaining Pure Chlorine"; "A New Process for obtaining Formic Acid, Aldehyde, etc."; "On the Oxidation of the Diamond in the Liquid Way"; "On New Instruments and Processes for the a.n.a.lysis of the Carbonates"; "On the Absorption of Carbonic Acid by Liquids"; besides the extended investigation "On the Decomposition of Minerals and Rocks by Carbonated and Meteoric Waters," to which we have referred above. There was also at this time a large amount of chemical work constantly on hand in connection with the Geological Survey, such as a.n.a.lyses of mineral waters, ores, and the like. Moreover, while at the University of Virginia, Professor Rogers published a short treatise on "The Strength of Materials," and a volume on "The Elements of Mechanics,"--books which, though long out of print, were very useful text-books in their day, and are marked by the clearness of style and felicity of explanation for which the author was so distinguished.

The year 1853 formed a turning-point in Professor Rogers's life. Four years previously he had married Miss Emma Savage, daughter of Hon. James Savage, of Boston, the well-known author of the "New England Genealogical Dictionary," and President of the Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society. This connection proved to be the crowning blessing of his life.

Mrs. Rogers, by her energy, her intelligence, her cheerful equanimity, her unfailing sympathy, became the promoter of his labors, the ornament and solace of his middle life, and the devoted companion and support of his declining years. Immediately after his marriage, June 20, 1849, he visited Europe with his wife, and was present at the meeting of the British a.s.sociation for the Advancement of Science, held that year at Birmingham, where he was received with great warmth, and made a most marked impression. Returning home in the autumn, Professor Rogers resumed his work at the University of Virginia; but the new family relations which had been established led in 1853 to the transfer of his residence to Boston, where a quite different, but even a more important, sphere of usefulness surrounded him. His wide scientific reputation, as well as his family connection, a.s.sured him a warm welcome in the most cultivated circles of Boston society, where his strength of character, his power of imparting knowledge, and his genial manners, soon commanded universal respect and admiration. He at once took an active part in the various scientific interests of the city. From 1845 he had been a Fellow of this Academy;[J] and after taking up his residence among us he was a frequent attendant at our meetings, often took part in our proceedings, became a member of our Council, and from 1863 to 1869 acted as our Corresponding Secretary. He took a similar interest in the Boston Society of Natural History. He was a member, and for many years the President, of the Thursday Evening Scientific Club, to which he imparted new life and vigor, and which was rendered by him an important field of influence. The members who were a.s.sociated with him in that club will never forget those masterly expositions of recent advances in physical science; and will remember that, while he made clear their technical importance to the wealthy business men around him, he never failed to impress his auditors with the worth and dignity of scientific culture.

[J] This notice is reprinted from the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol. xviii, 1882-'83.

During the earlier years of his residence in Boston, Professor Rogers occupied himself with a number of scientific problems, chiefly physical.

He studied the variations of ozone (or of what was then regarded as ozone) in the atmosphere at the time when this subject was exciting great attention. He was greatly interested in the improvements of the Ruhmkorff Coil made by Mr. E. S. Ritchie; and in this connection published a paper on the "Actinism of the Electric Discharge in Vacuum Tubes." A study of the phenomena of binocular vision led to a paper ent.i.tled "Experiments disproving by the Binocular Combination of Visual Spectra Brewster's Theory of Successive Combinations of Corresponding Points." A paper discussing the phenomena of smoke rings and rotating rings in liquids appeared in the "American Journal of Science" for 1858, with the description of a very simple but effective apparatus by which the phenomena would be readily reproduced. In this paper Professor Rogers antic.i.p.ated some of the later results of Helmholtz and Sir William Thomson. In the same year an ingenious ill.u.s.tration of the properties of sonorous flames was exhibited to the Thursday Evening Club above mentioned, in which Professor Rogers antic.i.p.ated Count Schafgottsch in the invention of a beautiful optical proof of the discontinuity of the singing hydrogen flame.

In 1861 Professor Rogers accepted from Governor Andrew the office of Inspector of Gas and Gas-Meters for the State of Ma.s.sachusetts, and organized a system of inspection in which he aimed to apply the latest scientific knowledge to this work; and in a visit he again made to Europe in 1864 he presented, at the meeting of the British a.s.sociation at Bath, a paper ent.i.tled "An Account of Apparatus and Processes for Chemical and Photometrical Testing of Illuminating Gas."

During this period he gave several courses of lectures before the Lowell Inst.i.tute of Boston, which were listened to with the greatest enthusiasm, and served very greatly to extend Professor Rogers's reputation in this community. Night after night, crowded audiences, consisting chiefly of teachers and working-people, were spellbound by his wonderful power of exposition and ill.u.s.tration. There was a great deal more in Professor Rogers's presentation of a subject than felicity of expression, beauty of language, choice of epithets, or significance of gesture. He had a power of marshaling facts, and bringing them all to bear on the point he desired to ill.u.s.trate, which rendered the relations of his subject as clear as day. In listening to this powerful oratory, one only felt that it might have had, if not a more useful, still a more ambitious aim; for less power has moved senates and determined the destinies of empires.

The interest in Professor Rogers's lectures was not excited solely, however, by the charm of his eloquence; for, although such was the felicity of his presentations, and such the vividness of his descriptions, that he could often dispense with the material aids so essential to most teachers, yet when the means of ill.u.s.tration were at his command he showed his power quite as much in the adaptation of experiments as in the choice of language. He well knew that experiments, to be effective, must be simple and to the point; and he also knew how to impress his audience with the beauty of the phenomena and with the grandeur of the powers of nature. He always seemed to enjoy any elegant or striking ill.u.s.tration of a physical principle even more than his auditors, and it was delightful to see the enthusiasm which he felt over the simplest phenomena of science when presented in a novel way.

We come now to the crowning and greatest work of Professor Rogers's life, the founding of the Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology--an achievement so important in its results, so far-reaching in its prospects, and so complete in its details, that it overshadows all else. A great preacher has said that "every man's life is a plan of G.o.d's." The faithful workman can only make the best use of the opportunities which every day offers; but he may be confident that work faithfully done will not be for naught, and must trustingly leave the issue to a higher power. Little did young Rogers think, when he began to teach in Virginia, that he was to be the founder of a great inst.i.tution in the State of Ma.s.sachusetts; and yet we can now see that the whole work of his life was a preparation for this n.o.ble destiny. The very eloquence he so early acquired was to be his great tool; his work on the Geological Survey gave him a national reputation which was an essential condition of success; his life at the University of Virginia, where he was untrammeled by the traditions of the older universities, enabled him to mature the practical methods of scientific teaching which were to commend the future inst.i.tution to a working community; and, most of all, the force of character and large humanity developed by his varied experience with the world were to give him the power, even in the conservative State of his late adoption, to mold legislators and men of affairs to his wise designs.

It would be out of place, as it would be unnecessary, to dwell in this connection on the various stages in the development of the Inst.i.tute of Technology. The facts are very generally known in this community, and the story has been already well told. The conception was by no means a sudden inspiration, but was slowly matured out of a far more general and less specific plan, originating in a committee of large-minded citizens of Boston, who, in 1859, and again in 1860, pet.i.tioned the Legislature of Ma.s.sachusetts to set apart a small portion of the land reclaimed from the Back Bay "for the use of such scientific, industrial, and fine art inst.i.tutions as may a.s.sociate together for the public good." The large scheme failed; but from the failure arose two inst.i.tutions which are the honor and pride of Boston--the Museum of Fine Arts and the Inst.i.tute of Technology. In the further development of the Museum of Fine Arts, Professor Rogers had only a secondary influence; but one of his memorials to the Legislature contains a most eloquent statement, often quoted, of the value of the fine arts in education, which attests at once the breadth of his culture and the largeness of his sympathies.

Although the committee of gentlemen above referred to had failed to carry out their general plan, yet the discussions to which it gave rise had developed such an interest in the establishment of an inst.i.tution to be devoted to industrial science and education that they determined upon taking the preliminary steps toward the organization of such an inst.i.tution. A sub-committee was charged with preparing a plan; and the result was a doc.u.ment, written by Professor Rogers, ent.i.tled "Objects and Plan of an Inst.i.tute of Technology." That doc.u.ment gave birth to the Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology, for it enlisted sufficient interest to authorize the committee to go forward. A charter with a conditional grant of land was obtained from the Legislature in 1861, and the inst.i.tution was definitely organized, and Professor Rogers appointed President, April 8, 1862. Still, the final plans were not matured, and it was not until May 30, 1864, that the government of the new inst.i.tution adopted the report prepared by its president, ent.i.tled "Scope and Plan of the School of Industrial Science of the Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology," which Dr. Runkle has called the "intellectual charter" of the inst.i.tution, and which he states "has been followed in all essential points to this very day." In striking confirmation of what we have written above, Dr. Runkle further says:

"In this doc.u.ment we see more clearly the breadth, depth, and variety of Professor Rogers's scientific knowledge, and his large experience in college teaching and discipline. It needed just this combination of acquirements and experience to put his conceptions into working shape, to group together those studies and exercises which naturally and properly belong to each professional course, and thus enable others to see the guiding-lines which must direct and limit their work in its relations to the demands of other departments....

"The experimental element in our school--a feature which has been widely recognized as characteristic--is undoubtedly due to the stress and distinctness given to it in the 'Scope and Plan.' In our discipline we must also give credit to the tact and large-heartedness of Professor Rogers--in the fact that we are entirely free from all petty rules and regulations relating to conduct, free from all antagonism between teachers and students."

The a.s.sociates of Professor Rogers in this Academy--many of them his a.s.sociates also in the Inst.i.tute of Technology, or in the Society of Arts, which was so important a feature of the organization--will remember with what admiration they watched the indefatigable care with which its ever active president fostered the young life of the inst.i.tution he had created. They know how, during the earlier years, he bore the whole weight of the responsibility of the trust he had voluntarily and unselfishly a.s.sumed for the public good; how, while by his personal influence obtaining means for the daily support of the school, he gave a great part of the instruction, and extended a personal regard to every individual student committed to his charge. They recall with what wisdom, skill, tact, and patience he directed the increasing means and expanding scope of the now vigorous inst.i.tution, overcoming obstacles, reconciling differences, and ingratiating public favor. They will never forget how, when the great depression succeeded the unhealthy business activity caused by the civil war, during which the inst.i.tution had its rise, the powerful influence of its great leader was able to conduct it safely through the financial storm. They greatly grieved when, in the autumn of 1868, the great man who had accomplished so much, but on whom so much depended, his nerves fatigued by care and overwork, was obliged to transfer the leaders.h.i.+p to a younger man; and ten years later were correspondingly rejoiced to see the honored chief come again to the front, with his mental power unimpaired, and with adequate strength to use his well-earned influence to secure those endowments which the increased life of the inst.i.tution required; and they rejoiced with him when he was able to transfer to a worthy successor the completed edifice, well established and equipped--an enduring monument to the n.o.bility of character and the consecration of talents. They have been present also on that last occasion, and have united in the acclamation which bestowed on him the t.i.tle "Founder and Father perpetual, by a patent indefeasible." They have heard his feeling but modest response, and have been rejoicing though tearful witnesses when, after the final seal of commendation was set, he fell back, and the great work was done.

We honor the successful teacher, we honor the investigator of Nature's laws, we honor the upright director of affairs--and our late a.s.sociate had all these claims to our regard; but we honor most of all the n.o.ble manhood--and of such make are the founders of great inst.i.tutions. In comparison, how empty are the ordinary t.i.tles of distinction of which most men are proud! It seems now almost trivial to add that our a.s.sociate was decorated with a Doctor's degree, both by his own university and also by the University at Cambridge; that he was sought as a member by many learned societies; that he was twice called to preside over the annual meetings of the American a.s.sociation for the Advancement of Science; and that, at the death of Professor Henry, he was the one man of the country to whom all pointed as the President of the National Academy of Science. This last honor, however, was one on which it is a satisfaction to dwell for a moment, because it gave satisfaction to Professor Rogers, and the office was one which he greatly adorned, and for which his unusual oratorical abilities were so well suited. He was a most admirable presiding officer of a learned society. His breadth of soul and urbanity of manner insensibly resolved the discords which often disturb the harmonies of scientific truth. He had the delicate tact so to introduce a speaker as to win in advance the attention of the audience, without intruding his own personality; and when a paper was read, and the discussion closed, he would sum up the argument with such clearness, and throw around the subject such a glow of light, that abstruse results of scientific investigation were made clear to the general comprehension, and a recognition gained for the author which the shrinking investigator could never have secured for himself. To Professor Rogers the truth was always beautiful, and he could make it radiant.

It is also a pleasure to record, in conclusion, that Professor Rogers's declining years were pa.s.sed in great comfort and tranquillity, amidst all the amenities of life; that to the last he had the companions.h.i.+p of her whom he so greatly loved; and that increasing infirmities were guarded and the accidents of age warded off with a watchfulness that only the tenderest love can keep. We delight to remember him in that pleasant summer home at Newport, which he made so fully in reality as in name the "Morning-side," that we never thought of him as old, and to believe that the morning glow which he so often watched spreading above the eastern ocean was the promise of the fuller day on which he has entered.

VIII.

JEAN-BAPTISTE-ANDRe DUMAS.[K]

Jean-Baptiste-Andre Dumas was born at Alais, in the south of France, July 14, 1800. His father belonged to an ancient family, was a man of culture, and held the position as clerk to the munic.i.p.ality of Alais.

The son was educated at the college of his native place, and appears to have been destined by his parents for the naval service. But the anarchy and bloodshed which attended the downfall of the First Empire produced such an aversion to a military life that his parents abandoned their plan, and apprenticed him to an apothecary of the town. He remained in this situation, however, but a short time; for, owing to the same sad causes, he had formed an earnest desire to leave his home, and, his parents yielding to his wish, he traveled on foot to Geneva in 1816, where he had relatives who gave him a friendly welcome, and where he found employment in the pharmacy of Le Royer.

[K] Reprinted from the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol. xix, 1883-'84.

At that time Geneva was the center of much scientific activity, and young Dumas, while discharging his duties in the pharmacy, had the opportunity of attending lectures on botany by M. de Candolle, on physics by M. Pictet, and on chemistry by M. Gaspard de la Rive; and from these lectures he acquired an earnest zeal for scientific investigation. The laboratory of the pharmacy gave him the necessary opportunities for experimenting, and an observation which he made of the definite proportions of water contained in various commercial salts, although yielding no new results, gained for him the attention and friends.h.i.+p of De la Rive. Soon after we find the young philosopher attempting to deduce the volumes of the atoms in solid and liquid bodies by carefully determining their specific gravities, and thus antic.i.p.ating a method which thirty years later was more fully developed by Hermann Kopp.

About this time young Dumas had the good fortune to render an important service to one of the most distinguished physicians of Geneva, whose name is a.s.sociated with the beneficial uses of iodine in cases of goitre. It had occurred to Dr. Coindet that burned sponge, then generally used as a remedy for that disease, might owe its efficacy to the presence of a small amount of iodine; and on referring the question to Dumas, the young chemist not only proved the presence of iodine in the sponge, but also indicated the best method of administering what proved to be almost a specific remedy. It was in connection with this investigation that Dumas's name first appears in public. The discovery produced a great sensation, and for many years the manufacture of iodine preparations brought both wealth and reputation to the pharmacy of Le Royer.

Soon after, Dumas formed an intimacy with Dr. J. L. Prevost, then recently returned from pursuing his studies in Edinburgh and Dublin, and was induced to undertake a series of physiological investigations, which for a time withdrew him from his strictly chemical studies. Several valuable papers on physiological subjects were published by Prevost and Dumas, which attracted the notice of Alexander von Humboldt, who on visiting Geneva, in 1822, sought out Dumas and awakened in him a desire to seek a wider field of activity than his present position opened to him. In consequence he removed to Paris in 1823, where the reputation he had so deservedly earned at Geneva won for him a cordial reception at what was then the chief center of scientific study in Europe. La Place, Berthollet, Vauquelin, Gay-Lussac, Thenard, Alexandre Brongniart, Cuvier, Geoffroy St. Hilaire, Arago, Ampere, and Poisson, all manifested their interest in the young investigator. Dumas was soon appointed Repet.i.teur de Chimie at the ecole Polytechnique, and also Lecturer at the Athenaeum, an inst.i.tution founded and maintained by public subscription, for the purpose of exciting popular interest in literature and science; and from this beginning his advancement to the highest position which a man of science can occupy in France was extremely rapid.

In 1826 he married Mdlle. Herminie Brongniart, the eldest daughter of Alexandre Brongniart, the ill.u.s.trious geologist, an alliance which not only brought him great happiness, and at the time greatly advanced his social position, but also in after years made his house one of the chief resorts of the scientific society of Paris. The many who have shared its generous hospitality will appreciate how greatly, for more than half a century, Madame Dumas has aided the work and extended the influence of her n.o.ble husband.

In 1828-'29 Dumas united with Theodore Olivier and Eugene Peclet in founding the ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, an inst.i.tution which met with great success, and in which, as Professor of Chemistry, Dumas rendered most efficient service for many years; and in 1878 had the very good fortune to aid in celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of his own foundation, and to see it acknowledged as among the most important and efficient scientific inst.i.tutions of the world. In 1832 Dumas succeeded Gay-Lussac as Professor at the Sorbonne; in 1835 he succeeded Thenard at the ecole Polytechnique; and in 1839 he succeeded Deyeux at the ecole de Medecine. Thus before the age of forty he filled successively, and for some time simultaneously, all the important professors.h.i.+ps of chemistry in Paris except one. This exception was that of the College of France, with which he was never permanently connected, although it was there that he delivered his famous course on the History of Chemical Philosophy, when temporarily supplying the place of Thenard.

Dumas early recognized the importance of laboratory instruction in chemistry, for which there were no facilities at Paris when he first came to what was then the center of the world's science; and in 1832 founded a laboratory for research at his own expense. This laboratory, first established at the Polytechnic School, was removed to the Rue Cuvier in 1839, where it remained until broken up by the Revolution of 1848. The laboratory was small, and Dumas would receive only a few advanced students, and these on terms wholly gratuitous. Among these students were Piria, Stas, Melsens, Leblanc, Lalande, and Lewy, with whose aid he carried on many of his important investigations. By the Revolution of 1848 Dumas's activities were for a time diverted into political channels; but under the Second Empire his laboratory was re-established at the Sorbonne, and in 1868 was removed to the ecole Centrale.

The political episode of Dumas's life was the natural result of an active mind with wide sympathies, which recognizes in the pressing demands of society its highest duty. The political and social upheaval of 1848 seemed at the time to endanger the stability in France of everything which a cultivated and learned man holds most dear; and Dumas was not one to consider his own preferences when he felt he could aid in averting the calamities which threatened his country. Immediately after the Revolution of February, he accepted a seat in the Legislative a.s.sembly offered him by the electors of the Arrondiss.e.m.e.nt of Valenciennes. Shortly afterward the President of the Republic called him to fill the office of Minister of Agriculture and Commerce. During the Second Empire he was elevated to the rank of Senator, and shortly after his entrance into the Senate he became Vice-President of the High Council of Education. In order to reform the abuses into which many of the higher educational inst.i.tutions of Paris had fallen, be accepted a place in the Munic.i.p.al Council of Paris, over which he subsequently presided from 1859 to 1870.

In 1868 Dumas was appointed Master of the Mint of France; but he retained the office only during a short time, for with the fall of the Second Empire, in 1870, his political career came to an abrupt termination. The Senate had ceased to exist, and in the stormy days which followed, the Munic.i.p.al Council had naturally changed its complexion; and even at the Mint, the man who had held such a conspicuous position under the Imperial government was obliged to vacate his place. Some years previously he had resigned his professors.h.i.+ps because his official positions were incompatible with his relations as teacher, and now, at the age of seventy, he found himself for the first time relieved from the daily routine of official duties, and free to devote his leisure to the n.o.ble work of encouraging research, and thus promoting the advancement of science. He had reached an age when active investigation was almost an impossibility, but his commanding position gave him the opportunity of exerting a most powerful influence, and this he used with great effect. In early life he had been elected, in 1832, a member of the Academy of Sciences in succession to Serullas; in 1868 he had succeeded Flourens as its Permanent Secretary; and in 1875 he was elected a member of the French Academy as successor to Guizot, a distinction rarely attained by a man of science.

It was, however, as Permanent Secretary of the Academy of Sciences that Dumas exerted during the last years of his life his greatest influence.

He was the central figure and the ruling spirit of this distinguished body. No important commission was complete without him, and on all public occasions he was the orator of the body, always graceful, always eloquent. In announcing Dumas's death to the Academy, M. Rolland, the presiding officer, said:

"Vous savez la part considerable que Dumas prenait a vos travaux et vous avez bien souvent admire, comme moi, la haute intelligence et la tact infini avec lesquels il savait imprimer a nos discussions les formes moderees et courtoises inherentes a sa nature et a son caractere. Sous ce rapport aussi la perte de Dumas est irreparable et cree dans l'Academie un vide bien difficile a combler. Aussi, longtemps encore nous chercherons, a la place qu'il occupait au Bureau avec tant d'autorite, la figure sympathique et veneree de notre bienaime Secretaire perpetuel."

And while Dumas was still occupying his conspicuous position in the Academy, one of the most distinguished of his German contemporaries[L]

wrote of him: "An ever-ready interpreter of the researches of others, he always heightens the value of what he communicates by adding from the rich stores of his own experience, thus often conveying lights not noticed even by the authors of those researches."

[L] A. W. Hofmann, in "Nature," February 6, 1880, to whose admirable and extended biography the writer is indebted for much of the material with which this notice has been prepared.

When the writer last saw Dumas, in the winter of 1881-'82, the great chemist had still all the vivacity of youth, and it was difficult to realize his age. He took a lively interest in all questions of chemical philosophy, which he discussed with great earnestness and warmth. There was the same fire and the same exuberance of fancy which had enchanted me in his lectures thirty years before. At an age when most men hold speculation in small esteem, I was much struck with his criticism of a contemporary, who, he said, had no imagination, although he spoke with the highest praise of his experimental skill. At that time Dumas showed no signs of impaired strength. But during the following year his health began to fail, and he died on the 11th of April, at Cannes, where he had sought a retreat from the severity of the winter climate of Paris.