A Science Empire in Napoleonic France

Gillispie Charles C. , Pierre-Simon Laplace, 1749–1827: A life in exact science (Princeton, NJ, 1997), p. vii. This book is a slightly revised version of the long article on Laplace in Gillispie C. C. (ed.), Dictionary of scientific biography (New York, 1970–80), xv, 273–403. Both contain important contributions from Robert Fox and Ivor Grattan-Guinness. I might also mention the work of Heilbron John , “Weighting imponderables and other quantitative science around 1800”, Supplement to Historical studies in the physical and biological sciences, xxiv/1 (1993), chap. 3: “Laplace's school”. There are numerous references to Laplace in Nicole Dhombres Jean , Naissance d'un nouveau pouvoir: Sciences et savants en France, 1793–1824 (Paris, 1989). The latest study of Laplace is Hahn Roger , he système du monde: Pierre Simon Laplace. Un itinéraire dans la science (Paris, 2004).

In this connection we may think of the authority of Newton in his later years, but probably the greatest stranglehold exerted by Newton's authority came in the period after his death.

Koebner R. Schmidt H. D. , Imperialism: The story and significance of a political word, 1840–1960 (Cambridge, 1964), 1.

Quoted ibid., 33.

Thornton A. P. , Doctrines of imperialism (London, 1965), 155.

Gillispie Charles , Science and polity in France: The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Years (Princeton, NJ, 2004), 557–600.

Hardt Michael Negri Antonio , Empire (London, 2000), p. xiv.

This corresponded to the Academy of Sciences in the Napoleonic period.

Birembaut A. , “L'Académie royale des Sciences en 1780 vue par l'astronome suédois Lexell”, Revue d'histoire des sciences, x (1957), 148–66, p. 157.

Gillispie , op. cit. (ref. 1), chap. 17.

Hahn , op. cit. (ref. 1), 120.

Savant Jean , Les ministres de Napoléon (Paris, 1959).

This may be compared with the 1,500 francs honorarium of members of the Institute or the 5,000 to 6,000 francs salary of a university professor.

A body concerned with the application of astronomical data to navigation. The determination of longitude at sea was a major problem in the eighteenth century, where Britain had been the pioneer. Crosland Maurice , The Society of Arcueil: A view of French science at the time of Napoleon I (London, 1967), 212.

He appointed his protégés Biot, Arago and Poisson to positions in the Bureau in 1806–8.

Notably to determine the velocity of sound with greater accuracy than hitherto.

Law of 16 December 1799.

The successive election of junior members of the Arcueil circle: Biot (1803), Gay-Lussac (1806), Arago (1809), Thenard Malus (1810), was spectacular evidence of the influence of Laplace and Berthollet in the First Class of the Institute, where able scientists normally had to wait until middle age to be elected. Membership was the key to appointment to other scientific positions with attractive salaries.

This was notably the case with Malus. The possible exception was the prize competition of 1811, for which the only memoir submitted was an anonymous contribution by Sophie Germain, who, however, was not awarded the prize until 1816. Yet even this choice of subject (a mathematical theory of elastic surfaces) had been intended for Laplace's protégé, Poisson, who did not manage to submit his memoir till 1814. Gillispie , op. cit. (ref. 6), 687.

Ferguson Niall , Colossus: The rise and fall of the American Empire (London, 2004), citing Zelikow Philip , “The transformation of national security: Five definitions”, National interest, lxxi (2003), 17–28, p. 18.

E.g. the Kesteloot Dutchman J. L. , Discours sur les progrès des sciences, lettres et arts depuis MDCCLXXXIX (Paris, 1809), p. iv.

Napoleon , Correspondance de Napoleon I (Paris, 1858–69), viii, no. 6454.

Cuvier F. , Rapport historique sur les progrès des sciences naturelles depuis 1789 (Paris, 1810), 3.

Edinburgh review, xi (1807–8), 253–4.

Erman Adolph (ed.), Briefwechsel zwischen W. Olbers und F. W. Bessel (Leipzig, 1852), i, 337, quoted by Jaki Stanley , Planets and planetarians: A history of the origin of the solar system (Edinburgh, 1978), 128.

See Peckham Morse (ed.), The origin of species. A variorum text (Philadelphia, 1959). There would be a good case for producing a variorum edition of Laplace's Exposition du système du monde.

Yet as, unlike periodicals, successive editions of books appear at irregular intervals, it is always possible that important changes in the author's perception may be noticed only years after the event.

Cajori Florian (ed.), Sir Isaac Newton's Mathematical principles of natural philosophy (Berkeley, CA, 1962), ii, 677.

For one of the clearest and most concise statements of the stability of the solar system, see Laplace , Système du monde (Paris, 1835), 542–3. See also Arago D. F. J. , Notices biographiques (Paris, 1865), iii, 476–78, and Dictionary of scientific biography, xv, 322. Jaki writes “The studies on that stability were Laplace's chief glory”, op. cit. (ref. 25), 133.

“Je n'avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là.” Cajori , op. cit. (ref. 28). See also Jaki , op. cit. (ref. 25), 150.

I know of no formal study of Laplace's literary style, but it is worth commenting on a remark by one of the Laplace experts. Gillispie , op. cit. (ref. 1), 170, comments that the mathematician had no use for any “literary artifice”.

The Système is often described as a popularization. This is true only insofar as the author omits mathematical equations. It is a wonderful example of what the French might call haute vulgarisation.

“élever la physique des corps terrestres à l'état de perfection auquel est arrivé la physique céleste, grace à la découverte de la gravitation universelle”, Laplace , Exposition du système du monde (Paris, 1796), ii, 198.

Thus in 1796 he said that “l'impossibilité de connaitre les figures des molécules rend ces recherches [i.e. a universal general law of micro-attraction] inutiles”, ibid., 197. But this was before the association with Berthollet at Arcueil and the asistance of Gay-Lussac.

Berthollet spoke of chemical affinity in terms of a force of cohesion. Berthollet C. L. , Essai de statique chimique (Paris, 1803), i, 23.

“Ainsi la matière est soumise à l'empire des forces attractives de nature différente …”, Laplace , Système du monde, 3rd edn (Paris, 1808), 296.

“Amassons donc toujours des Expériences et éloignons nous, s'il est possible, de tout esprit de système”, Buffon's preface to his translation of Stephen Hales's Vegetable staticks. Pivetau Jean (ed.), Oeuvres philosophiques de Buffon (Paris, 1954), 5.

Yet the eighteenth-century history of chemical affinity in terms of Newtonian attraction did not lead to much advance in chemistry. Thackray Arnold , Atoms and powers: An essay on Newtonian matter theory and the development of chemistry (Cambridge, MA, 1970).

For a study of the collaboration of the mathematician Laplace and the chemist Berthollet, see Crosland , op. cit. (ref. 14).

Biot had no hesitation in comparing him with Newton in tackling the ambitious plan of reducing chemical reactions to the action of forces. “Laplace … après avoir partagé avec Newton la gloire de ces applications brillantes …”, Journal de physique, lxv (1807), 95 (my italics). Note the use of the military term ‘glory’ for a scientific feat.

Système du monde, 2nd edn (Paris, 1799), 287.

Système du monde, 3rd edn (Paris, 1808), 318.

Laplace , Oeuvres complètes (Paris, 1878–1912), iv, 349–417, 419–98. The best general account of Laplace's treatment of capillarity is that of Robert Fox, “Short range forces”, in Gillispie , op. cit. (ref. 1), chap. 23, 203–8, p. 206. A full mathematical treatment is given by Dhombres Jean , “La théorie de la capillarité selon Laplace: Mathématisation superficielle ou étendue?”, Revue d'histoire des sciences, xlii (1989), 47–77.

Bowditch Nathaniel , Celestial mechanics by the Marquis de la Place (Boston, 1829–39; reprint New York, 1966), iv, 688–9.

Guyton de Morveau had claimed that this provided a direct measure of affinity, but Gay-Lussac concluded that the total weight required to raise the disc could vary enormously and depended on such extraneous factors as the time interval between the addition of successive weights.

Supplément à la théorie de l'action capillaire [1807], 1. In this second of two supplements which Laplace appended to chap. 10 of vol. iv of his Mécanique céleste he spoke enthusiastically (p. 68) of the law of nature that governed both capillary action and chemical affinity. This was at a time when he was most keen to relate physics and chemistry in the Society of Arcueil, which published its first volume of memoirs in 1807.

Note the claim for arriving at absolute truth. Laplace's close friend Berthollet, co-founder of the Society of Arcueil, spoke of their aim of arriving at “verités qui ne pourront jamais être contestées” and “remonter aux véritables causes des phénomènes”, Mémoires de physique et de chimie de la Société d'Arcueil , i (1807), pp. i, iii (my italics). Laplace was sometimes mocked by his younger colleagues for his fondness for the expression ‘veritablement’. Cournot A. , Souvenirs (1760–1860) (Paris, 1913), 87.

Supplément (ref. 46), 76. Laplace then went on to examine the work of several eighteenth-century Newtonians, including Jurin and Clairaut.

Système du monde, 4th edn (Paris, 1813), 320.

Malus É. L. , Théorie de la double réfraction (Paris, 1810), paragraph 54, quoted by Ronchi V. , The nature of light (London, 1970), 234.

Maxwell J. Clerk , art. “Atom”, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th edn (Edinburgh, 1875), i, 37.

Système du monde, 3rd edn (Paris, 1808), 316.

Ibid., 320. In the 1813 edition this sentence is given greater prominence by its position as the pessimistic final sentence in the chapter on molecular attraction. It is more usual for authors to conclude the discussion of a subject on a positive note.

E.g. in the 3rd edition of his Système du monde (Paris, 1808), 309, Laplace writes: “… non par des considérations vagues et conjecturales, mais par de rigoureux calculs.”.

Laplace's despair over the abandonment of his great programme did not prevent him from claiming justifiable credit later for his analysis of capillary action which had given results confirmed by experiment.

See Thackray , op. cit. (ref. 38).

As early as 1784, when Laplace was collaborating with Lavoisier, he had spoken of his hope of reducing chemistry, through the laws of chemical attraction, to the degree of perfection of astronomy. Théorie du mouvement et de la figure elliptique des planètes (Paris, 1784), p. xii, cited by Hahn , op. cit. (ref. 1), 251.

Hahn , op. cit. (ref. 1), 162.

“ne s'arrêter jamais”, Moniteur, 24 May 1806, quoted by Hahn , op. cit. (ref. 1), 162.

My italics. Supplément à la théorie de l'action capillaire, 1. This pagination is separate from that of the previous supplement.

There was only a three-year gap between the first and second editions: 1796 and 1799.

Laplace , Système du monde, 3rd edn (1808), 320–1.

Laplace was also on the losing side in continuing to support the caloric theory of heat. Hahn , op. cit. (ref. 1), 166. Yet Coulomb had shown (1785–91) that the inverse square law applied to electrostatics and magnetism. Gillmor C. Stewart , Coulomb and the evolution of physics and engineering in eighteenth-century France (Princeton, NJ, 1971), 182.

Hahn refers to other “important modifications to the fourth edition”, op. cit. (ref 1), 120.

Gillispie , op. cit. (ref. 1), 171 (my italics). Laplace's disciple Biot continued to support a comprehensive theory of intramolecular forces in his Traité de physique (1816), whereas Laplace had become much more cautious about embracing the theory. Hahn , op. cit. (ref. 1), 165.

Of course no such book ever appeared.

Laplace , Système du monde … 6ème édition, dans laquelle on a rétabli les chapitres XII, XVII et XVIII [“De l'attraction moléculaire”], qui avont été supprimé dans la 5ième édition (Paris, 1835).

The judgement of Hahn , op. cit. (ref. 1), 187.

Fox Robert , “The rise and fall of Laplacian physics”, Historical studies in the physical sciences, iv (1974), 89–136.

Laplace , Système du monde (3rd edn, 1808), 370, transl. by Harte H. H. , System of the world (Dublin, 1830), ii, 288–9.

Lavoisier , Elements of chemistry (Edinburgh, 1790), Preface, p. xxi.

For example, Laplace said that, if affinities depended on the law of universal gravitation, the densities of particles of matter would have to be enormous: “dans un rapport dont l'imagination est effrayé.” Système du monde, 1st edn (Paris, 1796), 197. In the second edition this phrase was toned down.

Ibid., 1st edn, 197–8.

Crosland , op. cit. (ref. 14), 66–74.

Laplace , Système du monde, 1st edn (Paris, 1796), ii, 276.

According to Hahn , op. cit., (ref. 1), 256, this term was introduced by Théodore Olivier in his Mémoire de géometrie descriptive (Paris, 1851).

Fox , op. cit. (ref. 69).

Rapport sur la situation de l'Ecole Polytechnique (Paris, Floréal an 9 [1800]).

At the Observatory Laplace initiated a long-term program of observation of stars that appear low on the horizon during extreme conditions of temperature and pressure in order to detect the effect of atmospheric refraction. Mécanique céleste, iv (Paris, 1805), p. xxiv.

Crosland , op. cit. (ref. 14), 214. See also Gillispie , op. cit. (ref. 1), 178.

Crosland , op. cit. (ref. 14), 127.

Ibid., 314.

Haüy was six years Laplace's senior and, as a cleric, not close to the atheistic Laplace.

Haüy René-Just , Traité de physique, 2nd edn (Paris, 1803), Introduction, p. xxvii.

“For Laplace science was a creed, a religion, the only one that he followed; for Lagrange science was no more than an exercise and a mental recreation”, Cournot, op. cit. (ref. 47), 85.

As late as 1823 Laplace was still mentioning short-range forces but now he was able to cite only capillarity as the prime example. Traité de mécanique céleste (Paris, 1799–1825), v, 99.

Gillispie , op. cit. (ref. 6), 557–600.

Davy John (ed.), Memoirs of the Life of Sir Humphry Davy (London, 1839–40), i, 167–8. Davy seems here to be combining a memory of Laplace's earlier position under the Empire with the impression given during his present visit.

Hahn , op. cit. (ref. 1), 205.

Fox , op. cit. (ref. 67).

Cf. the sub-title of Gillispie's book on Laplace, op. cit. (ref. 1).

Yet his tenure of the post of Minister of the Interior for a brief period under the Consulate had hardly been a success.

It is interesting that Laplace should have commented specifically on the chemical content of Newton's Opticks. He said that recent chemistry had confirmed many of Newton's opinions, which supports the view that he himself had a special interest in contributing in this area, thus endorsing the image of himself as the Newton of his age. Mécanique céleste, iv, 1805, Supplément au 6e livre, p. 6.

Gillispie , op. cit. (ref. 1), 67, 276.

Fox , op. cit. (ref. 69).

Times literary supplement, 18 February 2005, 12.

Bacon Francis , Novum organum (London, 1620), art. LIV; The philosophical works of Francis Bacon (London, 1905), 268.

Arago , op. cit. (ref. 29), iii, 490–1.

Ibid., 494–6.

Napoleon , Correspondance (ref. 22), vi, no. 4384; viii, no. 6454; x, no. 8842.

Rome, 26 May 1814, Papiers Rillet (private collection, Geneva), dossier G 4. Crosland Maurice , “Lavoisier, the two French revolutions and the imperial despotism of oxygen”, Ambix, xlii (1995), 101–18.

See, e.g., Morrell Jack “Professors Robison and Playfair and the Theophobia Gallica: Natural philosophy, religion and politics in Edinburgh, 1789–1815”, Notes and records of the Royal Society, xxvi (1971), 43–63.

Priestley Joseph , The doctrine of phlogiston established (Northumberland, PA, 1800), Preface.