Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/418

404 M. Bert was appointed in January, 1886, French Governor-General of Tonquin, and Minister-General to the court of Anam, where his functions were to be largely those of organization. He engaged himself with the duties of this mission with characteristic enthusiasm, applying himself almost equally to the performance of the civil work of his position, and to efforts for the encouragement of science in the new French dependency in which he was stationed. One of the last occasions on which he appeared in public in France was at the unveiling of the statue erected at the entrance of the Collége de France to the memory of Claude Bernard, where he delivered one of the addresses. At the ensuing meeting of the Academy of Sciences he made a farewell address, in anticipation of his departure, in which he expressed a hope that the young naturalists of the West would begin to turn their attention to the far East, and teach the learned classes of those regions more fully to appreciate the superiority of European science. "I rely on them," he added, "to increase our moral influence, and also to enlarge our knowledge of that region, in many places still unexplored, to study its resources, and prepare the way for the introduction of the great European industries. They will thus at once promote the interests of science and of France, a task enviable beyond all others."

Shortly after he had settled himself in his office in Tonquin, M. Bert published a decree to carry out a project, which he had entertained and matured before leaving France, for founding a Tonquinese Academy, on a plan similar to that on which Napoleon created the Egyptian Institute in 1798. It was set forth, in the preamble to this paper, that it was desirable to revive in the country which had been disturbed for so long a time the taste for literature and science, and to preserve to the people the vestiges of its glorious past, as well as to collect the scattered evidences of its ancient splendor. It was provided that the seat of the academy should be at Hanoi; and that its functions should be to investigate and collect everything of interest relating to Tonquin, to preserve ancient monuments, to initiate the people into the knowledge of modern sciences and civilization by translating and publishing in the Anamite language summaries of European works; to translate desirable Tonquinese works into French; to aid in forming a national library at Hanoi and public libraries in the principal towns; to publish monthly bulletins treating of scientific and other questions; and to put itself in relation with other Oriental societies in Europe and Asia. Various degrees would be given by the academy to Tonquinese, to be marked by a medal or emblem to be worn on the dress.

One of the last letters written by M, Bert from Hanoi was in reference to the improved lighting of the city at night. Gas being