Academie Des Sciences Research Articles

Translation of Charles Cros, ‘process for recording and reproducing colors, forms and movements’ (1867) with an introduction

ABSTRACT This 1867 document, akin to a patent application for the US Patent Office, is among the first to describe processes for producing both motion and color photography. It precedes by 20 years Edison’s 1888 kinetograph/kinetoscope design, the earliest working prototype of cinema. Its author is Charles Cros, who also outlined a phonograph system in 1877, a few months before Edison displayed his working phonograph. Cros is mostly known as a poet, fiction writer and playwright associated with members of the French Symbolist and Decadent movements (Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam). Yet he was an accomplished technician and inspired media innovator who deserves reconsideration in media history. Evidence of his status comes for instance from his close collaboration with Jules-Adrien Carpentier, the very engineer the Lumière Brothers tasked with constructing their Cinématographe camera. Sent to and received by the French Academy of Sciences, this document is in three parts. The first describes with prescient specificity the photographic synthesis of motion. The second offers several ways of achieving the photographic synthesis of color using filters and projection (rather than pigment and print, as later achieved in the 1890s). The last and more cryptic section concerns an ambitious theory of perception. Unpublished in French until 1970, this document will be of wide interest to scholars of media history, cinema and photography studies, literary studies, and modernist studies. The introductory essay makes a strong case for rehabilitating Charles Cros as a key inceptor of modern audiovisual media.

A Transatlantic Dialogue of the Tostoy Family Descendants, Participants in “The Golden Book of the Russian Emigration” Project

This article is devoted to the little-known but important details of a large-scale project of publishing a summarizing work on the life and activities of the post-1917 Russian emigration, named “The Golden Book of the Russian Emigration”. This project was conceived in the midst of the Society for the Protection of Russian Cultural Values Abroad in Paris (“OORKTs”) that was founded by D. P. Riabouchinsky, a prominent Russian émigré scientist in the field of aero and hydrodynamics, member of the French Academy of Science. In 1961, Riabouchinsky became the Chair of the Special European Executive Committee (Paris) for the Publication of the “Golden Book”. The American initiative group for the preparation and publication of the “Golden Book” was set up in September 1961. It was headed by Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya, the daughter of Leo Tolstoy and president of the Tolstoy Foundation (US). This article introduces for scientific use the previously correspondence between A. L. Tolstaya and Sergei Mikhailovich Tolstoy, Leo Tolstoy’s grandson, a doctor of medicine and deontologist, the author of works in tropical medicine and blood transfusion, who chaired the Special European Executive Committee for the Publication of the “Golden Book” since 1967. This correspondence that covers the period of 1966–1967 is concerned with establishing organizational relations between two centers of Russian dispersion, Paris and New York, and sheds light on the complicated workings of interpersonal relationships of project participants and on some causes of the project’s failure. The documents from two “Russian” archives in the USA, the Archive of the Russian Academic Group in the USA and the Archive of the Tolstoy Foundation, were used during the preparation of this article.

Equations as Unruly Objects

Abstract Specialized notation, complexity, and sheer length contributed to the unruly nature of 18th-century equations, whether in manuscript or printed form. By close examination of early modern material texts, this essay compares constraints and affordances of the pen and the composing stick for setting boundaries and imposing order on algebraic expressions. Drawing on French and British mathematical works, it considers typesetting practices and advice to readers in influential algebra textbooks, compares mathematical manuscripts prepared for print and the printed results, unpacks oversize pages brimming with derivations and multiple cases, and reflects on practices of mise-en-page in the Mémoires of the Paris Academy of Sciences and the Philosophical Transactions. It thus invites attention to the tools, gestures, and traces of amateur, expert, reader, writer, and typesetter in 18th-century algebra.

Knowledge and Technology Transfer in the Age of Enlightenment: The Scientific Correspondence between Franciszek Bieliński (1683-1766) and Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau (1700-1782)

The scientific life in mid-seventeenth-century Europe was characterised by numerous academies of sciences and scientific associations whose aim was to propagate the development of the sciences, art and literature. Some have called it “the new Age of Academies all over Europe”. These institutions brought together not only educated professionals but also a large number of amateur scientists. They called for the deliberate abandonment of verbal dispute in favour of visual demonstration/experimentation, and for the creation of paid scientific professionals who would devote their full time to the enterprise. These scientists conducted numerous experiments, the results of which were demonstrated at academic sessions. Franciszek Bieliński became Grand Marshal of the Crown in 1742. During the many years of his public service, he aimed to improve the well-being of Warsaw inhabitants, especially by paving the streets and creating a modern sewerage system. In the light of recent scholarly studies, Franciszek Bieliński is perceived as a figure of very wide horizons, striving to join the Parisian academic scientific discourse in order to transfer knowledge and technology to Poland. Bieliński exchanged letters with the eminent member and three-time president of the Paris Academy of Sciences (1666–1803), Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau, who among numerous other projects tested new methods of horticulture, agriculture and forestry. The article aims to discuss the scientific research undertaken by Bieliński in regards to technology transfer in the area of agriculture, on the basis of unanalysed documents. Recently found correspondence shows that Grand Marshal Bieliński was involved in experimental research supervised by Duhamel du Monceau, under the aegis of the Paris Academy of Sciences. It pertained to modern agricultural crops and the application of new technologies. The agricultural experiments that Bieliński carried out on his private lands in Otwock over many years focused on improving and increasing agricultural production in accordance with the instructions given by Duhamel du Monceau. An interesting research finding was the detailed description of one of the earliest transfers of advanced technology in the field of agricultural machinery. Reports of the work conducted in Poland, which were sent to Duhamel du Monceau, proved to be so useful and important that the latter mentioned these in the proceedings of the Paris Academy of Sciences.

Edmond Halley's Contributions to Hydrogeology.

Edmond Halley's Contributions to Hydrogeology.

The French Academy of Sciences: Deliberations related to the discovery of anaesthesia.

In the mid-19th century, the French Academy of Sciences was one of the oldest and most prominent scientific institutions in the world. Individuals seeking credit for the discovery of surgical anaesthesia contacted the French academy to achieve recognition from this prestigious body of scientists and to spread news of the discovery throughout continental Europe. The French Academy of Sciences was established under the reign of King Louis XIV in 1666 with the goal of supporting and advancing scientific research. Membership was limited to the most accomplished French scientists, who presented their research at weekly meetings and advised the French government on scientific matters. The academy began their deliberations on the discovery of anaesthesia in January 1847. Since anaesthesia had already been tested in the United States and Great Britain, the main contributions of the French academy deliberations included refining administration techniques and documenting the effects of anaesthesia on animals and humans. Recognition of surgical anaesthesia by the French Academy of Sciences and the swift adoption of its use in surgical practice throughout the country lent credibility to this new discovery and enabled the discipline of surgery to progress. Nevertheless, the academy was not able to solve the initial problem for which they may have been contacted-the dispute about which individual deserved credit for the discovery of anaesthesia.

Fr. Neugebauer. Kilka slow about wskrzeszeniu ciecia lonowego czyli symphyseotomio przez szkole poloznicza, Neapolitanska. (Medycyna, 1892, nos. 34-37, 46-53.). A few words about the revival, thanks to the Neapolitan school of midwives, the operation of the symphysisotomy.

The author, based mainly on the report of the Paris Academy of Travel to Italy, specially for the study of the symphysisotomy of Charpentier a ["De la symphisotomie." Extrait du Bulletin de 1 Acadmie de Medicine (sances du 15 et 22 Mars 1892, 36 pp.)] Gives a very detailed literary-historical overview of the methods of production, the demonstration, meaning and future of this operation, resurrected thanks to the Napolitan obstetricians, now more and more attention is paid to the medical world. Hippocrates also pointed out that the pubic bones at the end of pregnancy diverge to the right and left sides (Hippokrates, Denatura pueri). Riolanus (Manuel anatom., P. 626) and Ambroise Par (Oeuvres, Livre 24, Chap. 13), as well as Galenus, even mention that in antiquity even young girls were ripped open in order to facilitate childbirth in the future ... The terrible mortality from Caesar's misconceptions from the old days led obstetricians to think about symphysisotomy. According to Krassovsky (Operative obstetrician, 3rd edition 1885, p. 624), he first performed a symphysiotomy on a corpse after the death of a woman in labor, Dr. Jean Claude de la Couvre in Warsaw in 1585. Winckel, however, points to 1654, and Charpentier to 1655.

Retrospectives: History of science in France

Although maybe not the most fashionable area of study today, French science has a secure place in the classical canon of the history of science. Like the Scientific Revolution and Italian science at the beginning of the seventeenth century, French science, particularly eighteenth-century and early nineteenth-century French science, remains a safe, albeit conservative, bet in terms of history-of-science teaching and research. The classic trope of the passage of the flame of European science from Italy to Britain and France in the seventeenth and then eighteenth centuries is well established in overviews of the field. Specializing in research in this area is not, therefore, unreasonable as a career choice if you are aiming for a history-of-science position in Europe or even in the US. The Académie (royale) des sciences, with its state-sponsored model of collective research, provides a striking counterpoint to the amateur, more individualistic functioning of London's Royal Society-a foretaste of modernity in the institutionalization of science. Clearly naive, such a representation of French science serves as a good initial framework on which to hang half a century of critical historical research. If proof of the continued interest for eighteenth-century French science is needed, we can cite the Web-based project around Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopédie currently in progress under the auspices of the French Academy of Sciences. The large number of publications in the history of French science (in English as well as French) make it unreasonable to pick out one or two for special attention here. But what about history of science in France and the academic community that practises this discipline today? Here, I offer a very personal view and analysis of this community, trying to underline contrasts with the history of science in the UK and the US.

Sternenpolitik

Abstract Fontenelle’s dual role as a representative of the Modernes as well as the perpetual secretary of the French Academy of Sciences explains his hesitation in making any public statements about politics. Nevertheless, this article identifies within his best-known Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds a liberal interpretation of the heavens that is supported by the metaphorical transfer between political semantics and the field of cosmology. The idea of this liberality flourishes in the gallant dialogue between two protagonists (the marquise and the philosopher), unfolds within the context of an opening, expert scientific discourse, and is reflected through the physical description of a commerce among celestial vortices. Thus, different aspects of the political within the Conversations are examined - starting from the self-understanding of the individual all the way up to the idea of an egalitarian universe that is characterised by collective interaction.

Topic Selection and Structure in the National Atlas of Switzerland

Topic Selection and Structure in the National Atlas of Switzerland

Counterfeit bodies: Sébastien Leclerc, anatomy, and the art of copying at the Paris Academy of Sciences

Sébastien Leclerc’s engraving “L’Académie des sciences et des beaux-arts” of 1698 depicted an ideal academy that joined science and art in a single set of endeavors. Art historian Maxime Préaud argued that the engraving constituted Leclerc’s “testament” toward the end of his career, summarizing his work as an artist and his ambitions as a natural philosopher. This article closely examines this “testament” in the context of the intertwining roles of artists and men of science at the pre-1699 Paris Academy of Sciences. Leclerc’s engraving, and the changes it underwent in its eight different versions, reveals both his frustration with the Academy and his achievements within its constraints of originality, imagination, and patronage. Looking particularly at Leclerc’s illustrations for the Academy’s Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire naturelle des animaux (1671–76), it is argued that the Academy’s notion of illustration as an exact copy of a singular animal clashed with Leclerc’s desire to demonstrate the central role of images in creating knowledge and not simply representing it. Leclerc’s “L’Académie des sciences et des beaux-arts” takes on new significance as a regretful look at what might have been, as well as a sly commentary on what had come to be.

Henri Marie Rene Leriche – a French surgeon and physiologist, member of the Paris Academy of Sciences
 (to the 140th of birthday)

Rene Lerish was born in 1879, graduated from the Maristes School. In 1893 he received a bachelor's degree in rhetoric. In the years 1899-1900 Lerish served military service. In 1902, after graduating from the Faculty of Medicine in Lyon, he worked as an external student. In 1906, Lerish wrote a doctoral thesis on gastric resection for cancer. In the First World War, Lerish was at the front, where, among other things, he headed the school for the improvement of military field surgeons, wrote a number of works on the treatment of fractures, suggested organizing a center for vascular surgery. After the war, Leriche worked in Lyon until 1924, when he received the department of clinical surgery at the University of Strasbourg. In 1937, he took the place of professor at the College de France. Rene Leriche investigated the problem of pain, studied the sympathetic nervous system, including. Leriche developed access to the parathyroid glands, methods of resection of the stomach and treatment of trophic ulcers with varicose veins, periarterial sympathectomy (1913), operations for endarteritis obliterans and post-thrombophlebitic syndrome, described the syndrome of Leriche and proposed a method for its treatment. His work has also been devoted to problems of orthopedics, surgical endocrinology and anesthesiology. Leriche was the author of the concept, which called for restoring not so much the structure, but the function of the affected organ. Returning to Lyon in 1940, he resigned from the post of Minister of Health and until 1952 worked at the Center for Vascular Surgery in Lyon. He was the founder and first president of the European Society of Cardiovascular Surgeons. In 1955, Rene Lerish died. He published about 1,200 scientific papers, including 21 monographs. Leriche was a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences (1945), the National Academy of Medicine and the Academy of Surgery of France (1946), received the title of honorary doctor of thirty foreign universities. In 1958 in France a postage stamp was issued with his name and a portrait on it.

A forum where french-speaking faculty can exchange research on teaching.

In order to help promote instructional change at French-speaking universities in Europe, we initiated a series of 1-day events centered on learning innovations. Since 2015, these events have been taking place every 6 months at the Université Paris Descartes, with the moral support of three learned scientific societies, the French Academy of Sciences, and sponsoring by leaders in textbook editing and classroom technologies. Each event gathers ~ 40 participants (faculty members, postdocs, and educational specialists) from four countries (Belgium, France, Luxemburg, Switzerland) and invitees, who share their active learning practices, flipped classroom variations representing the most popular strategy. Their experience revealed that faculty who invest themselves in revamping teaching are still isolated at their institutions, although institutional and national support have now been gaining momentum. In particular, the role of educational specialists (known as ingénieurs pédagogiques in France) is key to help faculty move away from lecturing. Overall, our event series illustrates that a hands-off approach is effective to foster a cross-border community of committed academics in a context where the process of changing the way we teach at universities is still in its infancy. © 2019 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 47(5):599-606, 2019.

Causality in medicine

This article is the result of a symposium organized at the French Academy of Sciences on May 31, 2016, entitled: Do we need to know the causes to understand and intervene? Questions on causality in the biological and medical sciences, and published in French in a book entitled: Causality in the biological and medical sciences (EDP Sciences, 2017).

Les rapports d’affinité de Geoffroy, ou la clé d’un mariage réussi sous les lois de la thermodynamique

Geoffroy’s affinity ratios or the key to a successful blending under the laws of thermodynamic – On the 27th of August 1718, Geoffroy issued a communication to the French Royal Academy of Sciences entitled : «Table des différents rapports observés en chimie entre différentes substances.». This table is a major step to the understanding of the chemical reaction ; it creates a classification by affinity between chemical substances according to their tendency towards preferential union. These selective affinities lead for example to define a scale of values in according to the acid’s strength, or the more or less ease for metals to give amalgam.

The French Academy of Sciences and the systems of units: A long history!

The French Academy of Sciences and the systems of units: A long history!

L’Academie française et la « nouvelle orthographe »

L’Academie française et la « nouvelle orthographe »

CASSINI'S 1679 MAP OF THE MOON AND FRENCH JESUIT OBSERVATIONS OF THE LUNAR ECLIPSE OF 11 DECEMBER 1685

On 18 February 1679 Paris Observatory astronomer Jean Dominique Cassini presented a new map of the Moon to the Academy of Sciences in Paris, and this then became the standard reference work for French astronomers who carried out selenographical observations. Among these was a contingent of Jesuit missionary-astronomers who sailed from Brest on 3 March 1685, bound for China. <italic>En route</italic> they were forced to spend some months in Siam (present-day Thailand) and used the map when they observed the lunar eclipse of 11 December 1685. In this paper we examine the creation of the 1679 Moon map and its use by the French Jesuit missionary-astronomers in Siam in 1685.

Revisiting the Pouchet-Pasteur controversy over spontaneous generation: understanding experimental method.

Louis Pasteur's defeat of belief in spontaneous generation has been a classical rationalist example of how the experimental approach of modern science can reveal superstition. Farley and Geison (Bull Hist Med 48:161-198, 1974) told a counter-story of how Pasteur's success was due to political and ideological support rather than superior experimental science. They claimed that Pasteur violated proper norms of scientific method, and that the French Academy of Science did not see this, or did not want to. Farley and Geison argued that Pouchet's experiments were as valid as those of Pasteur. In this paper I argue that the core of the scientific debate was not general theories for or against spontaneous generation but the outcome of specific experiments. It was on the conduct of these experiments that the Academy made judgements favorable to Pasteur. Claude Bernard was a colleague of Pasteur, supportive and sometimes critical. I argue that Bernard's fact-oriented methodology of "experimental medicine" is a better guide to explaining the controversy than the hypothetic-deductive view of scientific method typical of logical empiricism.

New Lenses on China: A Symposium on Foreign Influences and China’s Photographic Frontiers

Photography was from its beginnings not only a global medium, but a medium of globalization. On 19 August 1839, when the Academie des Sciences in Paris announced the details of Louis Daguerre’s pho...