The Empire of Science_Napoleon and his scholars

From Napoleon, history usually retains the great battles, the daring strategies, the glorious marshals, the terrible defeats, the flight of the Eagle's return from Elba Island, the romantic end of St. Helena. As a matter of fact, what was Napoleon reading at Longwood, Sainte-Hélène ? Among other things, the astronomy of Delambre, and also  the course of Crystallography and cosmogony of Haüy, the chemistry course of Fourcroy, the course of mathematics of Lacroix, books that were written by the greatest scientists of his Empire to become classic teaching manuals to be used in the Lycées founded by him, books that he annotated from his hand. Napoleon, from the start and up to the end of his life, had a passion for science and followed its latest developments; and it is no coincidence that, during his reign, France became the dominant scientific power.

So I am here referring to another Napoleon, the Napoleon who made France the greatest scientific and industrial power of its time; and, despite the amazing number of books that are devoted to him (it is said that, since his death, one has been published every day), very few deal with this subject.

Napoleon built a veritable empire of science because, under his reign, the French domination on science became insolent: Laplace reigned on astronomy and mathematical physics with its Mécanique Céleste, who did explain how Newton's laws govern our solar system, with its subtle use of approximations and probabilities; he was in good company with Lagrange, Lalande, Biot, Arago. The chemical Revolution of Lavoisier continued with Thenard, Berthollet, Chaptal, Fourcroy, Vauquelin, Gay-Lussac. Chemistry was still for a time a French science, they explored all routes: study of the chemical reaction for Berthollet, medicinal chemistry for Fourcroy, industrial chemistry for Chaptal and Gay-Lussac. The Napoleonic prefect Fourier, a prominent member of the Expedition in Egypt, invented a new type of mathematical analysis which earned him a huge celebrity and the abbé Haüy continued what he started under the former Monarchy and even at the worst moments of terror: he breaked and classified crystals, buildind the basis of modern crystallography. In natural sciences, Daubenton and Lacépède continued Buffon work; Cuvier, in the words of Balzac, “rebuilt  worlds with bleached bones”, Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire elaborated a first theory of evolution. Corvisart, Pinel, Bichat, Fourcroy make Paris the location where  “modern medicine was born" - clinical medicine – according to the American historian Richard Shryock.

England, at the same time, only had one professional searcher paid by the State, the astronomer royal, successor of Newton, and also Davy, thanks to the Foundation created by the original count Rumford…who finally sought refuge and devoted his agitated life to science in Napoleonic France. Le Moniteur, official journal of the Empire where appeared stories of victories of the Napoleonic armies, and, less often, defeats, was also put at the service of scientific ambition. In full competition with Davy for the discovery of new chemical elements, Gay-Lussac could use it for accelerated publications; Davy, envious, commented: "this journal was that of science as well as war, and this incongruous mix was well in the style of the individual (Napoleon) who directed it.

French hegemony is well revealed by a significant anecdote. Mary Sommerville, the Laplace English translator, visiting the french scientists after the fall of Napoleon, wrote: "I felt some difficulties to follow the general conversation, but, when there was talk of science, it was much easier because all my books of science were in french.”

Empire of science, also, because scientists never were so honored, ennobled, rich and powerful, and mingled with political power. Chaptal, Minister of the Interior, put in place the modern France administrative organisation, created Prefets and national statistics, instruments of a rational, informed, effective government, installed  Chambers of Commerce and Industry, reorganized the hospitals with nurses and midwives now professional and well trained and creates the still existing Pharmacie Centrale, mobilized its prefects to combat smallpox and dropping the perinatal mortality, invented the cultural decentralization by creating a dense network of provincial museums and marked the landscape of France by the cultivation of beet and the law on cemeteries. Fourcroy, another great chemist, one of the main disciples of Lavoisier, after how many efforts and sacrifices !, invented the education system as we know it today, created the baccalaureate and great schools of engineers typical of the french system – such a Ecole Polytechnique, invented even the term and the concept of "Corps Enseignant”, organized professional teachers, formed by the State, with well-defined programs to teach and a career.

This is the story I wanted to tell… among many other things

Eric Sartori, l’Empire des Sciences, Napoléon et ses savants, Ellipses 2014 (reedited)