Academie Royale des Sciences

The functions of the Academie Royal des Sciences were assumed in 1795 by a branch of the newly formed National Institute. Laplace was elected vice president of this reincarnated Academy and then elected president a few months later, in 1796. The duties of this position put him in contact with Napoleon Bonaparte. Three weeks after Napoleon seized power m 1799, Laplace presented him with copies of his work on celestial mechanics. Bonaparte quipped that he would read it in the first six weeks I have free and invited Laplace and his wife to dinner. Three weeks later, Napoleon named Laplace his minister of the interior. After six weeks, however, he was replaced Napoleon thought him a complete failure as an administrator. However, Napoleon continued to heap honors and rewards upon him, regarding him as a decoration of the state. lie made Laplace a chancellor of the Senate with a salai y that made him wealthy, named him to the Legion of Honor, and raised him to the rank of count of the empire. Laplace s wife was appointed a lady-in-waitmg to the Italian court of Napoleon s sister. Laplace responded with adulatory dedications of his works to Napoleon. 

The Academie Royale des Sciences, first established in 1666, set up six sections in 1699 geometry, mechanics, astronomy, chemistry, botany, and anatomy. Lavoisier, as a member of the chemistry section, helped create a seventh section, "physique generate," in 1785. Previously, "physique" might be used as an umbrella term for the sciences now it was a separate science. 31... 

The Academie Royale des Sciences was established in 1666 with fifteen members but no classes or sections. See Maurice Crosland, "The French Academy of Sciences in the Nineteenth Century," Minerva 16 (Spring 1978) 73102, on 75 and Oeuvres de Lavoisier, IV (Paris Imprimerie nationale, 1868) 559. A useful source for the Academy is the Index biographique de l Academie des Sciences, 16661978 (Paris Gauthier-Vi liars, 1979), and for the Academy in the nineteenth century, Maurice Crosland, Science Under Control The French Academy of Sciences 17951914 (Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 1992). 

Ilya had an older brother, Alexander, who would become a chemist and make a career in the mining industry in the former Belgian Congo. He had a hobby that he developed very seriously ornithology. He even discovered a novel species of bird, to which his name was attributed. After his return to Belgium, he was elected member of the Academie Royale des Sciences d Outremer (the Academy of African sciences). 

Dorveaux, Paul, Apothicaires membres de l Academie Royale des Sciences, ... 

Cadet, L. C. Mimoires de Mathematique et de Physique Prisentis a I Academie Royale des Sciences 1760, 3, 623-637. 

Recueil des memoires les plus interessants de chymie, et d his-toire naturelle, contenus dans les Actes de l Academie d Up-sal et dans les Memoires de l Academie royale des sciences de Stockholm publies depuis 1720 jusqu en 1760, Paris, 1764, 2 vols. 

R.A. Ferchault, d. Reaumur, Observations sur les Mines de Turquoises du Royaume sur la nature de la Matiere qu on y trouve et sur la maniere dont on lui donne la couleur, Memoires de I Academie Royale des Sciences, Academie Royale des Sciences, Paris, 1715, pp. 174-202. 

Fontenelle, Histoire de I Academie Royale des Sciences (Paris, 1724), 35-37. 

New York Cambridge Univ. Press, 1958. Borda, J.-C. de. M moire sur les Elections au scrutin. Histoire de I Academie Royale des Sciences, 1781. 

The creation of the Academie royale des sciences in 1666 inaugurated a new era for Parisian chemistry Chemistry occupied a significant place in the plans for the new Academy This can be discerned from the proposal for a Compagnie des Sciences et des Arts by Thevenot, Auzout, and Petit, which envisioned a chemical laboratory" Charles Perrault s competing... 

Chemists at the Academie royale des sciences, 1666-1785 (source Index biographique de VAcademie des sciences, 1666-1978, Gauthier-Villars, 1979)... 

Owen Hannaway, Nicolas Fernery, Dictionary of Scientific Biography Paul-Antoine Cap, Nicolas Fernery (Paris Fain, 1839) D. Joseph Tonnet, Notice sur Nicolas Fernery, chimiste (Niort Robin, 1840) Paul Dorveaux, Apothicaires membres de I Academie Royale des Sciences. VI. Nicolas Fernery, Revue d histoire de la pharmacie 75, 1931, 208-219 Bougard, La chimie de Nicolas Lemery. 

Stroup, Wilhelm Homberg John Milton Hirschfield, The Academie royale des sciences, 1666-1683 (Arno, 1981), 117-120 and 146-162 Yves Laissus et Anne-Marie Monseigny, Les Plantes du Roi. Note sur un grand ouvrage de botanique prepare au XVIIe siecle par I Academie royale des Sciences, Revue d histoire des sciences et leurs applications 12, 1969, 193-236. 

I. Bernard Cohen, Isaac Newton, Hans Sloane and the Academie royale des sciences, in Melanges Alexandre Koyre, ed. I. Cohen and R. Taton (Hermann, 1964), volume 1. 

Resultat de quelques experiences faites sur le Diamant, par MM. Macquer, Cadet Lavoisier, lu a la Seance publique de I Academie Royale des Sciences, 29 Avril, 1772, Introduction aux observations, volume 2, 108-111 reprinted in Guerlac, Lavoisier, 199-204. 

Cadet, Experiences et Observations Chymiques sur le Diamant and Mittouart, Extrait de deux Memoires sur les Diamans Sc autres Pierres Precieuses, lus a I Academie Royale des Sciences les 2 7 Mai 1772 [Ecole de medecine, cote 90958, t. 169, no. 4, 3-15 and 26-31]. 

Lavoisier, Memoire sur la necessite de reformer C de perfectionner la nomenclature de la chimie, lu a Tassemblee publique de I Academie royale des sciences du 18 avril 1787, in Methode de nomenclature chimique (Seuil, 1994). 

Hirschfield, John Milton. The Academie royale des sciences, 1666—1683 (Arno, 1981). 

McClaughin, Trevor. Sur les rapports entre la Compagnie de Thevenot et I Academie royale des Sciences. Revue 28, 1975, 235-242. 

Stroup, Alice. Wilhelm Homberg and the Search for the Constituents of Plants at the 17th-Century Academie royale des sciences. Ambix 26, 1979, 184-201. Stroup, Alice. A Company of Scientists Botany, Patronage, and Community at the Seventeenth-Century Parisian Royal Academy of Sciences (University of... 

Sturdy, David J. Science and Social Status The Members of the Academie Royale des Sciences, 1666—1750 (Boydell, 1995). 

Mim. [Couronn. et de] Sav. dtrang. Acad. Roy. Bruxelles. M6moires Couronnes et Memoirs des Savants etrangers. Academie Royale des Sciences, Brussels. 

Lawrence M. Principe, Wilhelm Homberg s Wanderjahre Intellectual Formation and Transnational Networks, paper presented at Science in Europe, Europe in Science a conference held at Maastricht, 4-6 November 2004 Principe, Wilhelm Homberg and the Chymistry of Light, paper presented at CalTech, 22 February 2004. This material will be published in my forthcoming book, Wilhelm Homberg and the Transmutations of Chymistry at the Academie Royale des Sciences. 

Alice Stroup, Wilhelm Homberg and the Search for the Constituents of Plants at the 17th-Century Academie Royale des Sciences, Ambix 26,1979,184—202, on 185-86. 

---