Abstract
THE absorbing interest felt by the general reader in the outstanding men and events of the French Revolutionary period is to a great extent experienced by the student of the lives and characters of the French men of science who laboured during that remarkable time. During the latter part of the eighteenth century Paris was the centre of amazing intellectual activities, which even the vicissitudes of the most perilous days could not quench, and which, after the worst dangers were past, were resumed with increased zest. Especially was this the case with scientific studies and instruction. Old institutions of which the very life had been threatened were reorganised, and beside them sprang into existence others destined quickly to rival in renown any that had gone before. To one or other of the many institutions belonged most of the eminent men of science of France, among whom were Laplace, Lagrange, Delambre, Monge, Hay, Berthollet, Chaptal, Coulomb, Lacpde, Lamarck, and last but not least, the astronomer Lalande, the bicentenary of whose birth occurs this month.
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Jérôme de Lalande, 17321807. Nature 130, 48 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130048a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130048a0