Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/816

ARAGO. pelled to remain about half a veav, and whence he again set out for Marseilles in the latter part of June, 1809. After havin<; narrowly escaped another capture by an English frigate, Arago finally found his way to Marseilles. As a reward for his sufferings in the cause of science, the Paris Academy of Sciences suspended its standing rules in his favor; and though only twenty-three years of age, he was elected mem- ber in'the place of Lalande, who had just died, and was appointed professor of analytical geometry and 'geodesy in the Ecole Polytechniqne. After- wards, his attention was devoted more to astron- omy, magnetism, galvanism, and the polariza- tion of light. In 1811 he read before the Acade- my a paper of fundamental importance on chro- matic polarization. In 1812 he began his extraor- dinary course of lectures on astronomy, etc., which fascinated all Paris — the savants by their scientific rigor and solidity, the public by their brilliancy of style. In ISlti, along with Gay-Lussac, Arago established the Annales de Chiniie et de Physique, and demonstrated the value of the undulatory theory of light. In the same year he visited England, making the ac- quaintance of various persons distinguished in science, especially Dr. Thomas Young. In 1818 appeared his Recueil d'observations gcodesiqiies. astroiiomiqucs et physiques. In 1820 he turned his facile and inventive genius into a new chan- nel, and made several important discoveries in electro-magnetism. Oersted had shown that a magnetic needle was deflected by a voltaic cur- rent passing along a wire. Arago pursued the investigation, and found that not only a magnetic needle, but even non-magnetic substances, such as rods of iron or steel, were subject to deflection, exhibiting during the action of the voltaic cur- rent, a positive magnetic power, which, however, ceased with the cessation of the current. Some time after, he demonstrated that a bar of copper, and other non-magnetic metals, when moved cir- cularly, exert a noticeable influence on the mag- netic needle. For this discovery of the develop- ment of maaiietism by rotation, he obtained in 1825 the Coplev Medal of the Royal Society of London, and in 1834, when he again visited Great Britain, especial honors were paid to him by the friends of science in Edinburgli and Glasgow. Four years previoiis to this second visit to Great Britain, he was made perpetual secretary of the Academy and director of the oliservatory, a position" which he retained till his death. As secretary of the Academy he wrote his famous Soqes of deceased memliers, the beauty of which has given him so high a place among French prose writers. In politics, too, his career was ienurl<al)Ic. He was a keen Republican, and took a prominent part in the Jidy Revolution of 1830. In the following year he was elected by Perpignan as member of the Chamber of Deputies, where he occupied a position on the extreme Left. In the February Revolution of 1848, he was chosen a member of the Provisional Government, and appointed minister of war and marine. In this position he resisted the pro- posed measures of the Socialist Party, regard- ing the Constitution of the United States as the ideal of democracy. His popularity in his own department was the means of preventing the discontented population of Basses-Pyrenees from proceeding to lawless and violent measures. He opposed the election of Louis Napoleon to the Presidency, declared himself against the policy of the new ilinistry, and refused to take the oath of allegiance after the coup d'etat of 1851. Napoleon, in a letter, paid a high tril)ute to his talents and virtues, and excused him from taking the oath as director of the observatory. In his general character Arago was sociable, and a brilHant conversationalist. He was the inti- mate friend of Alexander von Humboldt. His collected works, edited by Barral, were published in Paris (17 vols., including a biography of Arago, 18.54-62). Alexander von Humboldt wrote an introduction to the German translation oi Arago's works. ARAGO.  (1803-92). A French dramatist and politician, a brother of the famous scientist, Dominique Francois Arago (q.v. ), born near Perpignan. Basses - Pyrenees. He was the author, with various collaborators, of a large number of comedies and vaudeville pieces which were successfully produced in Paris, among them Les I'liyes de Bassompierre and Les Me- moires du dinhle. and was director of the Vaude- ville from 1829 to 1840. As a journalist, he was. one of the founders of La Reforme, an advanced Republican newspaper. His poetical comedy, Les Aristocrat ies (1847), the success of which at the Theatre Francais was ended only by the Revolution of 1848, was an expression of the same radical sentiments which made him, as a mendier of the Constituent Assembly, an oppon- ent of Louis Napoleon's pretensions, and caused his own exile (1849-59). His highest political station had been as director-general of the post- office for several months in 1848. Upon the restoration of the Republic in 1870, he resumed a position of influence, being for a short time mayor of Paris. In 1871 he was elected to the National Assembly, but soon resigned. He lie- came archivist of" the Ecole des Beaux Arts in 1878. and later director of the JIusee du Luxem- bourg. ARAGO,  (1812-96). A French politician, son of the astronomer. He became an ardent Republican, and on February 24. 1848, when the abdication of the King was announced in the Chamber, Arago, who had penetrated thither, demanded the deposition of the Orleans family, and protested in the name of the people against a regency. Under the provisional government, he was sent to Lyons as commissary-general, and prevented a serious insurrection' liv applving half a million francs to relieve immediate ' distress. A little later he was elected to the Constituent Assembly, and was soon sent as envoy to Prussia, where he interested himself for the oppressed Poles, procuring the liberation of General Microlawski. He resigned as soon as Louis Napoleon was elected to the presidency, and became in the Constituent, and later in the Legislative Assembly, one of the future Emperor's most active opponents, vigorously ])rotesting against the expedition to Rome. After the coup d'etat (December 2, 1851), he quitted political life and returned to his law practice, but in 1870 became a member of the Government of National Defense, first as minister of justice, and later as minister of the interior, replacing Gamlielta in the latter office. In 1871. he was elected a member of the National Assembly, and on the oro-anization of the Senate in 1876, he was elect-