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The scientific press in transition: Rozier's journal and the scientific societies in the 1770s

James E. McClellan III Humanities Department, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey, 07030, U.S.A.
Pages 425-449 | Received 12 Jan 1979, Published online: 22 Aug 2006

  • Kronick , D. 1976 . A history of scientific and technical periodicals: the origins and development of the scientific and technical press 1665–1790 , 2nd. ed. Metuchen, N. J. v. Although not without its limitations, David Kronick's volume is presently the most informative source concerning the scope and character of the scientific periodical press in the eighteenth century, and, as will be evident, it provides much of the background for this study. See also D. McKie, ‘The scientific periodical from 1665 to 1798’, Philosophical magazine, 150th Anniversary Number (1948, London), 122–132 (esp. pp. 122–125); B. Houghton, Scientific periodicals, their historical development, characteristics and control (1976, Hamden, Conn.), ch. 1; J. Thornton and R. I. J. Tully, iScientific books, libraries and collectors: a study of bibliography, and the book trade in relation to science (3rd. ed., 1971, London), passim and here pp. 282–283. These works will be cited hereafter as ‘Kronick’: ‘McKie, ‘Periodical’’; ‘Houghton’; and ‘Thornton and Tully’. For fine studies of seventeenth-century developments in the scientific press, see M. Ornstein, The role of scientific societies in the seventeenth century (1928, Chicago), ch. vii; and H. Brown, Scientific organizations in seventeenth-century France (1934, New York), ch. ix.
  • See Kronick, 77–78, 112; McKie, ‘Periodical’, 125; and (section 2) below for a discussion of the relative importance of society proceedings in the periodical press of the eighteenth century. See also Price D. Science since Babylon New Haven 1961 95 99
  • See McKie, ‘Periodical’, 130–131; and Houghton, ch. 2. With regard to the transition to the nineteenth century, Kronick qualifies his terminal date of 1790 on heuristic grounds, (pp. v–vi), but he alludes to nineteenth-century developments and calls his period of study ‘the gestation of the modern scientific journal’ (p. 278). For similar views of changes in post-revolutionary France, see Crosland M.P. The development of a professional career in science in France The emergence of science in Western Europe Crosland New York 1976 139 159 esp. p. 141; and R. Hahn, The anatomy of a scientific institution: the Paris Academy of Sciences 1666–1803 (1971, Berkeley), 174, 306–307 (cited hereafter as ‘Hahn’).
  • Interesting evidence for this shift is the pressure placed on the Mémoires of the Académie des Sciences of the Institut de France by specialized publications and the eventual appearance of the Comptes rendus hebdomadaires of the Academy in 1835 (see Crosland M.P. The Society of Arcueil: a view of French science at the time of Napoleon I Cambridge, Mass. 1967 268 271 and 462–465). The breakdown of other society proceedings into specialized series (the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London from 1832, series A and B of the Philosophical Transactions from 1887, three sets of Mélanges of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Saint-Petersburg from 1849 and 1850, for example) seems to testify to the long-term effect of specialization and the growth of knowledge on older learned society publications (see Thornton and Tully, 266, 282; and S. Scudder, Catalogue of scientific serials 1633–1876 (1879, Cambridge, Mass.), #3709g, 3709h, 3709i).
  • Rozier began publishing an initial duodecimo version of his Journal in July 1771. In January 1773 he began the Journal again in an upgraded in-quarto format with new volume numbers; we will have more to say of the reform of 1773 and its significance in (sections 2 and 4 below.) Twelve monthly numbers in two annual volumes were published from 1773, and it is in this form that the Journal is generally known. The first eighteen numbers of the Journal (1771–1773) were reissued in 1777 as the Introduction aux observations … Rozier was succeeded as editor by his nephew, J. A. Mongez, in 1780; Mongez left France in 1785 (to perish with the French explorer, La Pérouse), and J. C. Delamétherie took over as active editor. The French Revolution brought an informal hiatus between 1793 and 1797, but Delamétherie continued publishing until 1816 when he was succeeded as editor by H. M. Ducrotay de Blainville. Publication ceased in 1823. For full bibliographical details concerning Rozier's Journal, see Scudder (footnote 4), #1398, #1421, #1607; Bolton H. A Catalogue of scientific and technical periodicals 1665–1882 Washington 1885 267 267 422; J.-M. Quérard, La France littéraire (10 vols., 1827–1839, Paris), vol. 8, 272–273; and E. Hatin, Histoire politique et littéraire de la presse en France (8 vols., 1859, Paris), vol. 3, 173–174. Rozier's Journal is cited as Rozier Obs. throughout these footnotes.
  • See footnotes 7 and 8. In addition to Kronick; McKie, ‘Periodical’; and Houghton, aspects of Rozier's Journal have been the object of special study by McKie D. The Observations of the Abbé François Rozier Annals of science 1957 13 73 89 E. W. J. Neave, ‘Chemistry in Rozier's Journal’, Annals of science, 6 (1950), 416–421, 7 (1951), 101–106, 284–299, 393–400, 8 (1952), 28–45; and H. Guerlac, Lavoisier, the crucial year (1961, Ithaca), esp. pp. 59–65. These works are abbreviated hereafter as ‘McKie. ‘Observations’’; ‘Neave’; and ‘Guerlac’.
  • McKie, ‘Observations’, 73; and ‘Periodical’, 127. See also Thornton and Tully, 284, where the Journal is characterized as ‘the first specialist periodical devoted to physics and chemistry’. It should be pointed out that at other points McKie modifies his strong opinion somewhat, giving credit to Lorenz Crell's Chemische Journal (1778) and the Journal der Physik (1790) as the first specialized scientific periodicals, ‘…since, strictly speaking, the Observations sur la physique included subjects other than physics …’ McKie Periodical 130 131
  • It is impossible in this context to treat the printed book or its role in facilitating scientific communications in the eighteenth century. The relative importance and degree of connection of the book and the scientific periodical are still matters for research. On scientific books see Kronick 63 64 and Thornton and Tully, chs. v–vi.
  • Kronick . 78 – 78 . ch. ii (‘Definitions of the periodical’); and Table 1 (‘Types of scientific periodicals 1665–1790’)
  • See Kronick ch. v (‘Original publication: the substantive journal’) for these details concerning the ‘substantive’ journal.
  • See Kronick 89 89 Table 2 (‘Substantive serials by country and subject’) and Table 7 (‘Comparison of duration: society proceedings and substantive journals’), 123.
  • Other aspects of the contemporary ‘scientific’ press that cannot be dealt with here in detail (in toto a further 28% of Kronick's survey) include ‘review’ and ‘abstract’ journals (into which categories the Journal des sçavans, the Acta eruditorum, the Mémoires de Trévoux, and the Nouvelles de la République des Lettres are usually placed), collections or compilations of reprinted materials (such as the Collection académique, referred to below in footnotes 27–28 and text), dissertations, almanacs, and so on (see Kronick, 78). Book reviews, summaries, digests, republications and announcements of scientific material originally presented in ‘substantive’ journals or learned society proceedings dominate these forms of publication (Kronick, chs. vii–xi). How much journals like the Journal des sçavans or the Acta eruditorum provided a common or important outlet for so-called original publication is an open question. Compare, for example, Kronick's categorization of the ‘review’ journal (pp. 184ff.) with what Ornstein has said of the substantive content of the early issues of the Acta eruditorum Ornstein The role of scientific societies in the seventeenth century Chicago 1928 204 206 and notes). Kronick later indicates that various types of review and general periodicals were used as outlets for original scientific publication (p. 255); but one suspects that these types of derivative publications were of ever less importance to eighteenth-century men of science.
  • Kronick, ch. vi (‘Original publication: society proceedings’); and Table 9 (‘Active society proceedings by subject and decade’), 123. For more on the rise and growth of learned societies (and their journals) in the eighteenth century, see McKie D. Scientific societies to the end of the eighteenth century Philosophical magazine London 1948 133 143 150th Anniversay Number and J. McClellan, ‘The international organization of science and learned societies in the eighteenth century’ (1975, Ph.D. Thesis, Princeton University; University Microfilms #76-20369-00000), passim, and here appendices ii and iii. These two works are cited subsequently as ‘McKie, ‘Scientific Societies’’; and ‘McClellan’. See also R. Schofield, ‘Histories of scientific societies: needs and opportunities for research’, History of science, 2 (1963), 70–84.
  • See Kronick ch. vi; and McClellan, ch. ii (‘The two models’) for the details of this paragraph.
  • Kronick . Table 1, 78. This latter judgement is common to those who have written on the scientific press of the eighteenth century (see Kronick, 112; Houghton, 17; McKie, ‘Periodical’, 125–126, ‘Scientific societies’, 138; and Thornton and Tully, 262–265 and following).
  • Hahn . 24 60 – 63 .
  • It is commonly held that the Philosophical transactions was the private publishing endeavor of the secretary of the Royal Society. From the 1690's, however, the Council seems to have played some role, and in 1752 the Royal Society formally assumed complete control over its publication (see Philosophical Transactions 47 1751 1752 ‘Advertisement’, following title page and before table of contents; D. Stimson, Scientists and amateurs. A history of the Royal Society (1948, New York), 114, 144, 169; and H. Lyons, The Royal Society, 1660–1940 (1944, Cambridge), 151, 179 and following).
  • Hahn, 31 Stimson Scientists and amateurs. A history of the Royal Society New York 1948 144 144
  • Hahn, 60–61. The Swedish, Prussian and Russian academies were granted various monopolies (almanacs, map sales, customs duties) which supported their publishing activities (see McClellan 97 101 104 117–120). In addition, the Saint-Petersburg Academy had its own academic press associated outright with the organization of the Academy (see A. Vucinich, Science in Russian culture, a history to 1860 (1963, London), 76–77; and A. Lipski, ‘The Foundation of the Russian Academy of Sciences’, Isis, 44 (1953), 349–355).
  • Kronick . 123 – 123 . Table 7
  • Kronick . 162 – 162 . Table 11 (‘Average intervals between the appearance of volumes of society proceedings’) Neave 6 (1950), 419; Guerlac, 64; McKie, ‘Periodical’, 127; and McClellan, 418–419.
  • Kronick, 143; McClellan, 138 von Harnack A. Geschichte der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin Berlin 1900 1 349 350 3 vols. and S. Lilley, ‘Nicholson's Journal, 1797–1813’, Annals of science, 6 (1948), 78–101, esp. pp. 90–91. For complete publication data for the Philosophical transactions, see Library of Congress card #17-4684-9.
  • Note the comment of the Saint-Petersburg academician Nicolaus Fuss, who remarked in 1782 of a paper he read in 1780: ‘It is very discouraging for an author to see his productions thus buried in the storerooms’ (Imperial Academy of Sciences, Saint-Petersburg Protokoli Zasidanii Konferensii Imperatorskoi Akademii Nauk c 1725 po 1803 goda Saint-Petersburg 1897–1911 4 vols. vol. 3, 22 August 1782; author's translation). These printed minutes of the meetings of the Saint-Petersburg Academy are cited hereafter as ‘Protokoli’. Unless indicated, from here on all translations from non-English sources are the author's. Original texts from manuscript sources will be transcribed in the footnotes.
  • Hahn, 61; Kronick, 118. Two pieces by Laplace, for example, were refused publication in the Russian Commentarii on account of this discriminatory principle (see Protokoli. June 1772 3 25
  • The formal title of the Savans étrangers series is Mémoires de mathématique et de physique presentés à l'Académie Royale des Sciences par divers savans et lus dans ses assemblées (Hahn, 61–62; Kronick, 143; and McClellan, 211, 312–313). For the episode in Saint-Petersburg, see Protokoli, vol. 3, 26 August 1784. The entry reads: ‘As the Academy already possesses several interesting memoirs that have been sent to it by its correspondents and by other foreign savants which cannot as a result be inserted into its Acts, the Conference was unanimously of the opinion to make a separate collection of them and to publish them under the title of Mémoires presentés à l'Académie Impériale par des savans étrangers to the extent that enough are accumulated to make a volume'. Nothing seems to have come of this proposal.
  • Kronick . 212 – 215 . McClellan, 208–210. The ‘Partie française’ of the Collection académique (16 vols., 1754–1787, Paris abridged the Mémoires of the Paris Academy.
  • Collection académique , 1 ‘Discours préliminaire’, xxxviii; translated after Kronick, 213. See also Rozier's remarks to this effect, quoted below at footnote 37. That there was a problem of accessibility of learned society proceedings or that the Collection académique relieved it to some extent is further evident in the following communication of 1774 sent by Jérôme de Lalande in Paris to Pehr Wargentin in Stockholm: ‘Le 8e volume de Bologne, e'est le seul qui vous manque est aussi rare ici que chez vous, et je ne sais pas si je le trouverai: mais si vous voulés le volume françois de la Collection académique ou [sic] sont les extraits de Bologne, de même que le[ur] volume de l'acad, de Suède, je puis vous les envoyer. Je ne sais pas non plus si le 4e volume de Turin se trouvera à paris…’ (letter, Lalande to Wargentin, Paris, 8 March 1774, in the ms. collection. ‘Brev till och från P. Wargentin’, Kungl. Vetenskapsakademiens Archiv, Stockholm: hereafter cited as ‘Wargentinbrev’).
  • Another factor may have had a bearing on the currency of academic journals. It is not altogether clear that learned societies actually intended their publications to serve the function of actively disseminating their scientific productions so much as fulfilling merely commemorative or archival purposes; see Kronick 163 163
  • For descriptions of Rozier's Journal, see Kronick 106 112 McKie, ‘Periodical’, 127–130; and McClellan, 421.
  • ‘Such promptness of publication’, comments Kronick, ‘would be considered exemplary even today’ (p. 158; see also Neave 6 (1950), 419). One might note that Lavoisier used the intervening period between 1772 and 1776 to revise and extend the results he published in Rozier's Journal (see The overthrow of the phlogiston theory Harvard case histories Conant J.B. 1957 1 77 78
  • D'Agoty's journal was also known under the title Observations périodiques sur la physique, l'histoire naturelle et les beaux arts: ‘Cet ouvrage renferme les secrets des arts, les nouvelles découvertes, et les disputes des philosophes et des artistes modernes’ (see Bolton A Catalogue of scientific and technical periodicals 1665–1882 Washington 1885 422 423 McKie, ‘Observations’, 73; and Neave 6 (1950), 416). It should be pointed out that d'Agoty used beautifully colored paintings or prints (the precise method is unclear to the author) to illustrate points of natural history and botany. An attempt seems to have been made in the 1780s to revive d'Agoty's periodical under the original privilege.
  • For biographical details on Rozier. see Dugour A.J. Notice sur la vie et les écrits de l'Abbé Rozier Cour complet d'agriculture Paris 1801 10 i xvi appended to Rozier's A. de Boissieu, Éloge de l'Abbé Rozier (1832, Lyon); M. Cochard, Notice historique sur l'Abbé Rozier (1832, Lyon); and A. Thiébaut de Berneaud, Éloge historique de François Rozier (1833, Paris). The memoirs by du Boissieu, Cochard and de Berneaud were submitted as part of prize competitions sponsored in 1830 and 1832 by the Académie des Sciences, Belles-lettres et Arts of Lyon for an éloge of Rozier. See also Nouvelle biographie générale, vol. 42 (1863), cols. 827–830. Rozier, who had been managing the family agricultural property near Lyon, apparently beat a hasty retreat to Paris, after having quarrelled with his elder, inheriting brother (see Cochard, 7–8).
  • McKie reprints Rozier's ‘Prospectus’ of 1771 in Observations 73 77
  • 1771 ‘Prospectus’ in McKie Observations 73 75
  • See Kronick D. A history of scientific and technical periodicals: the origins and development of the scientific and technical press 1665–1790 , 2nd. ed. Metuchen, N. J. 1976
  • Rozier . 1773 . Obs. , 1 : iii – iv . ‘Avis’ Other portions of this ‘Avis’ of 1773 are reprinted in McKie. ‘Periodical’, 127–129; and Kronick, 107–110. Translation based on Kronick.
  • See Rozier Obs. 1773 1 note verso to title page. There is some confusion about this title change. Bolton (footnote 5), 267, attributes the new title to the second volume of the 1777 reprint, Introduction aux observations …, with the first volume (January–June 1773) of the revised series called Observations et mémoires sur la physique, sur l'histoire naturelle et sur les arts et métiers and with the second (July–December 1773) and subsequent volumes under the standard title. Scudder (footnote 4), 110, lists the Tableau du travail title appearing in 1772 (sic) with the continuation as Observations sur la physique, sur l'histoire naturelle et sur les arts, contenant l'abrégé de l'histoire et des mémoires des académies étrangères …. The catalogue of the Bibliothèque nationale (vol. 158, col. 589) indicates the Tableau du travail title for the January 1773 number, with all others under the standard title. I am indebted to an anonymous referee for the very probable suggestion that Rozier first published in 1773 using the Tableau du travail title and then replaced the original title page with a new cancel leaf or leaves. Versions of the first (1773) volume of the Observations that I have seen are printed with the standard title but with a notice on the back of the title page remarking that the new title, Tableau du travail, is being suppressed and the old title, Observations sur la physique, kept. This notice is printed verso to the title pages of every number (except May and June) through November 1773.
  • In this connection it is noteworthy that in 1773 Rozier similarly aligned his new publication with the Collection académique series. In the prefactory ‘Avis’ of 1773 Rozier Obs. 1773 1 iii iv ‘Avis’, Rozier remarks of his Journal ‘that it can be regarded and will be in effect the complement to the Collection académique’. Elsewhere, he speaks of his journal as the ‘suite indispensable’ of the Collection académique (2 (1773), verso to title page). In the copy of Rozier's Journal in the American Philosophical Society Library (Philadelphia) this notice is reprinted verso to the title pages of the July to November 1773 numbers of the Observations. The ‘Avis’ printed verso to the title pages of numbers of the Observations from January 1774 through November 1775 remarks that Rozier's series ‘fait suite avec les Collections académiques’ (author's emphasis). Rozier's bibliographic connection to the Collection académique and to the series of the learned societies is stressed by Quérard (footnote 5), vol. 8, 272; and Hatin (footnote 5), vol. 3, 173.
  • This point is made emphatically by all who have written on Rozier McKie Periodical 127 127 ‘Observations’, 85–89; Guerlac, 53–54 (where he points to Rozier's notice of a key work by Priestley barely a month after it was presented to the Royal Society of London); and Neave, passim. Coulomb was a later contributor of note.
  • Several comments on the quotidian use of the Journal exist. Rozier published one: ‘Your Journal, by the care you give it having become a general repository for all the observations of physical scientists [physiciens] and naturalists, would you allow me to consign a discovery that just took place four leagues from here’ 1779 14 157 157 See also Guerlac, 61.
  • Two unconfirmed references to the 1500 figure occur in Dugour Notice sur la vie et les écrits de l'Abbé Rozier Cour complet d'agriculture Paris 1801 10 vii vii appended to Rozier's and de Boissieu (footnote 33), 13. The figure of 1500 seems a little high for contemporary journal publication: Compare D. Kronick. ‘Scientific journal publication in the eighteenth century’, Bibliographical Society Papers, 59 (1965), 28–44, esp. p. 32. For more on the circulation and distribution of Rozier's Journal, see section 5 below.
  • For indications of Rozier's work-load, see McKie Observations 82 83 and Rozier Obs., (1) 9 (1777), ‘Avis’, #5, verso to title page, where he says: ‘On nous pardonnera de ne pas répondre à toutes les lettres qu'on nous fait l'honneur de nous éerire. Deux Commis ne suffiroient pas’. (Beginning with the February 1777 number of the Observations. Rozier ceased printing a title page with each number (see (2) 9 (1777), 81n). The various ‘Avis’ and ‘Avis essentiels’ that he appended to the Observations from that date do not form part of the regular pagination and therefore do not appear in all bound copies of the Journal. References to these ‘Avis’ and ‘Avis essentiels’ are to the unbound copies of the Journal in the Bibliothèque de l'Institut, Institut de France, Paris (4° AA 127).) For further evidence of the present point, see also Rozier's letter to J.-F. Seguier dated Paris, 20 May 1772, wherein he notes: ‘Mes occupations sont aujourd'hui si multipliées qu'a [sic] peine ai-je le tems de remplir ma tache’. This letter is part of an important cache of thirty-three Rozier letters to be found in the Bibliothèque de la Ville de Lyon, Ms. #791 (cited hereafter as ‘Lyon, Ms. #791’). With regard to the two translations (Sammlung brauchbarer Abhandlungen aus Roziers Beobachtungen über die Natur und Kunst (Leipzig), and Osservazioni spettanti alla fisica, alla storia naturale ed alla arti (Venice)) see Scudder (footnote 4) #2098, #3010; and Rozier Obs., 8 (1776), 411. In 11 (1778), ‘Avis essentiels’, #10, Rozier remarks: ‘MM. les Traducteurs & Contrefacteurs de ce Journal, sont pries [sic] de faire parvenir un Exemplaire de leur Traduction on Contrefaçon à l'Auteur, & il le leur payera. Ce petit égard est bien dû pour la peine qu'il prend de leur fournir des materiaux’.
  • 1792 . Travels during the years 1787, 1788 and 1789 [in France] 261 – 261 . Bury St. Edmunds (28 December 1789). Young had earlier sought out Rozier in Béziers, at which time he called him ‘the celebrated editor of the Journal de physique’. (p. 32 (24 July 1787)).
  • Kronick . 105 – 106 . and Seudder(footnote 4), #2728. Der Naturforscher (30 vols., 8°) was edited by Johann Walch and later by Johann von Schreber; publication ceased in 1804.
  • Hahn . 132 – 133 . and L. Aucoc. L'Institut de France: lois, status et règlements concernant les anciennes académies et l'Institut de 1635 à 1889 (1889, Paris) ci-ciii. The prologue to the regulations concerning this reform notes: ‘… Sa Majesté a reconnu que la division des classes adoptée [en 1699] n'embrassoit plus aujourd'hui l'universalité des sciences dont l'Académie s'occupe; que l'agriculture, l'histoire naturelle, la minéralogie, la physique, ne paroissent pas être entrées dans le plan de son institution, quoique ces sciences ne soient pas moins dignes que les autres de l'attention des savants et de la protection du Gouvernement’ (p. ci).
  • See Kronick 12 94 99 McKie, ‘Periodical’, 130–131, ‘Scientific societies’, 139–142; and Thornton and Tully, 283 and following for related details.
  • Rozier . 1778 . Obs. , 11 : 454 – 454 . see also Scudder (footnote 4), #2292a. Rozier discusses specialized societies in this passage: just a few months earlier and in almost the identical language he addressed the same problem with regard to journals, but there the distinction between disciplinary specialization and the general separation of science from other cultural enterprises is not made as explicit as it is here (see 11 (1778), 78–80; Kronick reprints these latter remarks on his pp. 110–111).
  • See in passim the classificatory indices that Rozier issued for each semi-annual volume of the Observations. The distribution of papers according to the disciplines mentioned varies in each number, but generally each category is represented. If there is an order, it would descend as listed. See also the alphabetical subject index Rozier published for articles appearing in the Observations from 1771 to 1777 in Rozier Obs. 1777 10 437 508 and Neave, 6 (1950), 417.
  • Rozier . 1778 . Obs. , 11 ‘Avis essentiels’, #6. It is noteworthy with regard to the possibility of the Journal's specializing in chemistry or physics that, if anything, the complaint to Rozier was that not enough space was devoted to natural history; see Rozier's letter to Seguier dated Paris, 18 January 1774, wherein he speaks of the ‘public qui se plaint de ce que je ne donne pas assès d'articles d'histoire naturelle’ (Lyon, Ms. #791).
  • Note that in its eighteenth-century context the term ‘experimental physics’ (physique expérimentale) did not mean the same thing as our present word ‘physics’ (which implies more mechanics and mathematical analysis) but, rather, empirical (and even popular) investigations and demonstrations concerning heat, light, (static) electricity and magnetism (see Hahn, 91–92; Torlais J. La physique expérimentale Euseignement et diffusion des sciences en France au XVIIIe siècle Taton R. Paris 1964 619 645 and C. S. Gillmor, Coulomb and the evolution of physics and engineering in eighteenth-century France (1971, Princeton), passim and esp. pp. 80–83.
  • Hahn . 76 98 – 99 . McClellan, 72–75; and Harnack (footnote 23). vol. 1, 299-300. See also d'Alembert's ‘Discours préliminaire’ to the Encyclopédie with its taxonomic diagram of human knowledge, where the ‘science of nature’ is subdivided into ‘mathematics’ and ‘particular physics’ (physique particulière): R. N. Schwab, trans. (1963, Indianapolis), passim and esp. pp. 144–145. The clearest statement d'Alembert makes in his text with regard to this division of the sciences is the following: ‘Such is the plan we must follow in that vast part of physics [la Physique] called General and Experimental Physics. It differs from the physico-mathematical sciences in that it is properly only a systematic collection of experiments and observations. On the other hand, the physico-mathematical sciences, by applying mathematical calculations to experiment, sometimes deduce from a single and unique observation a large number of inferences that remain close to geometrical truths by virtue of their certitude’ (Schwab trans. 24).
  • See Rozier Obs. 1773 1 note verso to title page; and section 2 above at footnote 38.
  • The parallels in form and purpose between Rozier's Journal and those of Nicholson and Silliman are especially close. Nicholson's Journal of natural philosophy, chemistry and the arts at the time of its foundation was described in Rozier's Journal as being modelled on the Observations, and Lilley remarks on the connection (see Rozier Obs. (Journal de physique) 1794 45 2 2 [sic] 403; and Lilley (footnote 23), 79–80). The similarities to Silliman's Journal can be seen in E. Dana, ‘The American journal of science from 1818 to 1918’, in Dana et al. (eds.), A century of science with special reference to the American journal of science (1919, New Haven), 13–60. Note the familiar ring to Silliman's programmatic statement prefacing his first volume: ‘This Journal is intended to embrace the circle of the Physical Sciences [sic] … It is designed as a deposit for original American Communications' (American journal of science, 1 (1818), v–vi, Silliman's emphasis; see also Thornton and Tully, 285–286).
  • See section 2 above at McKie Observations 73 75
  • 1771 ‘Prospectus’ in McKie Observations 74 74 Elsewhere in the ‘Prospectus’ of 1771 Rozier specifically invites ‘amateurs’ as well as ‘sçavans’ to send illustrations along with their work to the Journal (ibid., 76).
  • See section 5 below at Rozier Obs. 1778 11 522 526
  • See section 2 above at Rozier Obs. 1773 1 iii iv ‘Avis’
  • Rozier . 1773 . Obs. , 1 : v – v . ‘Avis’, see footnote 37.
  • Rozier . 1773 . Obs. , 1 : v – vi . ‘Avis’, see footnote 37.
  • See McClellan ch. x.
  • Rozier . 1773 . Obs. , 1 : v – vi . ‘Avis’ 8 (1776), 411; 10 (1777), 437n. See also the ‘Avis au lecteur’ in Rozier's Nouvelles tables des articles continus dans les volumes de l'Académie Royale des Sciences de Paris depuis 1666 jusqu'en 1770 (4 vols., 1775–1776, Paris), vol. 1, v–vii for similar language. Rozier's letter to Benjamin Franklin dated Paris, 21 April 1779, likewise evidences this same sort of commitment: ‘Monsieur, Permettès moi de vous prier de me communiquer votre memoire [sic] sur l'aurore Borèale, Pour L'imprimer dans Le journal de physique. J'ose vous faire cette demande au nom de Tous Les physiciens. vous savès combien Tout ce qui sort de votre Plume est interressant [sic] Pour eux. Le mercure de France en donnera un extrait, mais un extrait n'est Bon que pour ceux qui ne s'occupent pas Bien sérieusement. Le journal de physique au contraire qui ne parle ni de comedie [sic], ni des Bouquets à clous est fait pour Les Travailleurs et ces Travailleurs vous demandent Leur instruction’ (American Philosophical Society Library, Philadelphia, autograph letter, Hayes catalogue XIV, 52½).
  • Roger Hahn explores the nature of the French scientific community in his Anatomy, 51 and following, and also in two, related articles: Scientific research as an occupation in eighteenth-century Paris Minerva 1975 13 501 513 and ‘Scientific careers in eighteenth-century France’, in Crosland (footnote 3), 127–137. In the latter two studies Hahn minimizes the career aspect of professionalism in the eighteenth-century French scientific community. For another view suggesting a functional occupation in and around academies, see J. McClellan, ‘Un manuscript inédit de Condorcet: sur l'utilité des académies’, Revue d'histoire des sciences, 30 (1977), 241–253.
  • Yardeni , M. 1973 . Journalism et historie à l'époque de Bayle . History and theory , 12 : 208 – 229 . in her esp. p. 211, consigns journalists to the bottom rung of the Republic of Letters.
  • 1784 . Protokoli , 3 August 23 The Berlin Academy also received a solicitation for this same project. Its response is unknown, but seemingly nothing came of the idea; see ‘Registres de l'Académie 1766–1786’, 377 (19 August 1784), Akademie der Wissenschaften, Archiv, Berlin (DDR).
  • See Dijon Archives départementales de la Côte-d'Or, Académie des sciences arts et belles-lettres Registres 1784 May xiv 65 65 6 For other solicitations of a similar nature to the Dijon Academy, see Archives départementales de la Côte-d'Or, série D 131, letter from Brussels dated 20 November 1776; série D129, printed circular from Florence dated 1770. Perhaps because of its greater prestige, I find only one such communication directed to the Paris Academy, again with uncertain outcome (see Paris, Institut de France, Archives de l'Académie des sciences, ‘Registres des procès verbaux des séances’ (hereafter ‘PV’), vol. 94, 114 (29 April 1775); the project concerned a ‘Journal Littéraire’ of one de Rossel).
  • See Dijon Academy ‘Registres’ Dijon Archives départementales de la Côte-d'Or, Académie des sciences arts et belles-lettres Registres 1771 June vi 30 31 14 Rozier letter to Seguier, Paris, 20 May 1772, where the incident regarding the Nîmes academy is related (Lyons, Ms. #791).
  • Academy , Berlin . 1768 . Mémoires , 24 : 358 – 366 . ‘Second discourse … on the principal goal of academies’ esp. p. 362; for the first part of Formey's address, see Berlin Academy, Mémoires, 23 (1767), 367–381. See also Hahn, 101. Formey's addresses formed the basis of the article, ‘Académies, advantages des’, which appears in some later editions of the Encyclopédie.
  • Reprinted in Kunik A.A. Sbornick materialof gla istorii Imperatorskoi Akademii Nauk v VIII veka Saint-Petersburg 1865 2 519 530 2 vols.
  • Lomonosov in Kunik Sbornick materialof gla istorii Imperatorskoi Akademii Nauk v VIII veka Saint-Petersburg 1865 2 520 521 2 vols. Curiously, Lomonosov's attack was directed against the Leipzig journal, Commentarii de rebus in scientia naturali et medicina gestis (1752‐1798), which enjoyed a rather high reputation as a journal of medicine and science (see Kronick, 188, 190; and McKie, ‘Periodical’, 126). The basis of Lomonosov's distinction between the roles of academies and journalists was that academies should judge science and journalists merely report on it.
  • ‘J'ai dit que M. Rozier auteur du journal des observations sur la physique, l'histoire naturelle et les Arts étaient [sic] venu me prier d'offrir de sa part à l'Académie la communication de tout ce qui viendroit à sa connaissance et qui pourrait l'intéresser. J'ai été chargé de le remercier de sa politesse de la part de l'Académie’ (PV Dijon Archives départementales de la Côte-d'Or, Académie des sciences arts et belles-lettres Registres 1771 December 90 249 249 14
  • See PV Dijon Archives départementales de la Côte-d'Or, Académie des sciences arts et belles-lettres Registres 91 105 105 304, 329 and following; see also Guerlac, 53, 63–65.
  • See Guerlac, 59. For more on the Trudaines, see Delorme S. Une famille de grands Commis de l'État, amis des sciences au XVIIIe siècle: les Trudaine Revue d'histoire des sciences 1950 3 101 109 Note the tantalizingly vague remark Rozier makes in the ‘Avis’ of 1773 (footnote 37): ‘The Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris for a long time has felt the importance of this Collection. Several of its Members proposed it last year pretty much along the same lines we have adopted. Special reasons prevented the complete exceution of this proposal’ (p.v).
  • Rozier . 1773 . Obs. , 1 ‘Avis’, note to p. vi.
  • Cited at Rozier Obs. 1773 1 v vi ‘Avis’ see also Kronick, 215–216.
  • PV Dijon Archives départementales de la Côte-d'Or, Académie des sciences arts et belles-lettres Registres 1774 April 93 135 135 6 ‘… cet ouvrage pouvoit être très utile et l'auteur méritoit l'encouragement de l'Académie’.
  • For Rozier's use of these officials as postal cover, see Guerlac, 64 and letters and reports cited in footnotes 84 and 85 below. For evidence concerning the Ponts et chaussées, see Rozier letter to de Bernières, ‘Inspecteur des ponts et chaussés [sic], au Louvre’, dated Paris, 6 December 1777, Lyon, Ms. #791: ‘Vous savès que La comité [sic] d'emulation a décidé que j'impresserois dans mon journal de physique La description des voitures, fardiers, ou chariots qui ont mérité des encouragements—elle [sic] a encore décidé qu'elle supporteroit Les frais du dessein des machines … Permettès moi de vous prier de presser ces desseins …’. A note in another hand at the top of this letter says: ‘Prèsentè au Comité d'inspection du 10 Xbre 1777’. In the June 1778 number of the Observations Rozier did publish a ‘Description d'un Fardier, nommé la Gabrielle …’ along with one plate (see Rozier Obs. 1778 11 522 526 and plate)
  • Turgot's government unfortunately had collapsed by the time Rozier returned (see Nouvelle biographie générale 42 col. 828). He later undertook a similar mission to Holland, perhaps with government support (see de Boissieu (footnote 33), 15–16; and Cochard (footnote 33), 11–12).
  • See Rozier Obs. 1779 14 418 421 and Kronick, 238–239. Another noteworthy Paris group making use of the Observations was the Société Royale de Médecine through its secretary, Vicq d'Azyr (see Rozier Obs., 16 (1780), 306).
  • Montpellier, Archives départementales de la Hérault, Société Royale des Sciences de Montpellier, série D203, #71, Rozier letter dated 15 February 1772; Dijon Academy, ‘Registres’ Dijon Archives départementales de la Côte-d'Or, Académie des sciences arts et belles-lettres Registres 1772 March vi 117 117 6 and Wargentinbrev, Rozier letter dated 22 March 1772.
  • See printed letter dated Paris, 24 January 1773, Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society Library, Miscellaneous Manuscripts; this letter is reprinted in its entirety in The papers of Benjamin Franklin Wilcox W. New Haven 1976 20 27 29 See also reports in the Berlin Academy, ‘Registres 1766–1786’ (footnote 68), 241 (2 July 1778), and Berlin Academy, Nouveaux mémoires, 33 (1778), 69; and Saint-Petersburg Academy, Protokoli, vol. 3, 20 August 1778.
  • Letter to American Philosophical Society The papers of Benjamin Franklin Wilcox W. New Haven 1976 20 27 29
  • ‘Mon but en envoyant à toutes les compagnies savantes de l'Europe, le journal de physique, a été de les engagés [sic] à concourir avec moi aux progres [sic] des sciences. La lenteur avec laquelle elles se propagent, le peu de communication qu'il y a d'un Royaume à un autre, tout en un mot concourit à nous laisser ignorer souvent pendant plusieurs années des découvertes les plus utiles. J'ai donc cherché à les Rapproacher par un centre commun, par un dépot general [sic]. où chacun doit avoir la faculté d'y prendre acte de son travail et de se faire connoître’ (letter to Wargentin P. Wargentinbrev 1775 August 8
  • Letter to P. Wargentin Wargentinbrev 1775 August 8
  • Cochard . 1801 . “ Notice sur la vie et les écrits de l'Abbé Rozier ” . In Cour complet d'agriculture Vol. 10 , 9 – 10 . Paris appended to Rozier's and de Boissieu (footnote 33). 12–14. For background see E. Justin, Les sociétés royales d'argiculture au XVIIIe siècle (1935, Saint-Lo), passim.
  • See Dumas J.B. Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, Belles-lettres et Arts de Lyon Lyon 1839 1 358 358 2 vols. For more on Rozier's connections to the Lyon Academy, see vol. 1, 78, 344–346; vol. 2, 542
  • See Academy Dijon Registres 1772 March vi 117 117 6
  • Montpellier, Archives départementales de la Hérault, série D123 Registres de la Société Royale des Sciences 1778 March 26 and série D199 (‘Liste des savants étrangers’).
  • Dijon Academy, ‘Registres’ Dijon Archives départementales de la Côte-d'Or, Académie des sciences arts et belles-lettres Registres 1772 March vi 117 117 6 See also Cochard (footnote 33), 13, where he prints a list of Rozier's society memberships along with dates of election.
  • Cochard . 1801 . “ Notice sur la vie et les écrits de l'Abbé Rozier ” . In Cour complet d'agriculture Vol. 10 , 13 – 13 . Paris appended to Rozier's
  • See Rozier Obs., passim and Cochard (footnote 33), 13.
  • For more on this important group of institutions see Roche D. Le siècle des lumières en province, académies et académiciens provinciaux, 1680–1789 The Hague 1978 passim; and McClellan, chs. iii and vi.
  • Wargentinbrev Rozier letters dated 22 March 1772 and 8 August 1775. Work of the Swedish academicians appeared already in the first (1771) number of the Observations (see McKie, ‘Observations’. 78).
  • See Wargentinbrev and Sten Lindroth. Kungl. Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Historia 1739–1818 (1967, Stockholm), 214 and note.
  • Dahlgren , E.W. 1915 . Svenska Vetenskapsakademien Personforteckningar 1739–1915 125 – 125 . Stockholm
  • Autograph postscript to American Philosophical Society letter The papers of Benjamin Franklin Wilcox W. New Haven 1976 20 27 29
  • See American Philosophical Society Early proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1744–1838 Philadelphia 1884 83 83 88, 95 and following. Even though Rozier's printed letter of 1773 says that his journal would not harm the publication of society memoirs, the American Philosophical Society was jealous of its own, relatively new series of Transactions, the first volume of which appeared in 1771, and hence would not send papers before they were published.
  • Franklin to Rozier, dated London, 22 June American Philosophical Society Library, Hayes Catalogue 1773 XLV 65 65 This letter is reprinted in (footnote 85), 242–243.
  • See The Banks letters Dawson London 1958 Magellan letter #5 (London, 1779). Rozier mentions Magellan (of Portuguese origins) as someone through whom correspondence could be forwarded in the postscript to his letter to the American Philosophical Society (footnote 85): see also Guerlac, 36 and following, for more concerning Magellan.
  • Elmsley is likewise mentioned as a contact for English correspondence for Rozier in his letter to the American Philosophical Society The papers of Benjamin Franklin Wilcox W. New Haven 1976 20 27 29
  • See Royal Society of London Archives Journal Book 1774 May 28 84 84 (Copy) 19 and following
  • Berlin Academy, ‘Registres 1766–1786’ The papers of Benjamin Franklin Wilcox W. New Haven 1976 20 79 79 149, 154, 212 and following. See also Berlin Academy. Nouveaux mémoires, 32 (1777), 42.
  • Berlin Academy, ‘Registres 1766–1786’ The papers of Benjamin Franklin Wilcox W. New Haven 1976 1778 July 20 241 241 2
  • Berlin Academy, ‘Registres 1766–1786’ The papers of Benjamin Franklin Wilcox W. New Haven 1976 1780 September 20 290 290 7
  • 1775 . Protokoli , 3 March 20
  • 1775 . Protokoli , 3 November 13 and dates following.
  • 1778 . Protokoli , 3 August 20 Rozier's letter was dated 18 January 1778.
  • 1778 . Protokoli , 3 August 20
  • 1779 . Protokoli , 3 June 21
  • See Rozier Obs., passim and Cochard (footnote 33), 13.
  • Boissieu , Du . 1801 . “ Notice sur la vie et les écrits de l'Abbé Rozier ” . In Cour complet d'agriculture Vol. 10 , 21 – 21 . Paris appended to Rozier's and following; and Cochard (footnote 33), 14 and following. There is evidence, however, that Rozier kept a hand in the running of the Journal well into the 1780s (see letters to Amoreux, for example, Beauséjour, 4 December 1783, etc., where he discusses editorial matters in Lyon, Ms. #791). From 1781 Rozier published his Cours complet d'agriculture (12 vols., 3 posthumously, 1781–1805). He was killed by a bomb in the siege on Jacobin Lyon in 1793.
  • See Berlin Academy, ‘Registres 1766–1786’ Archives Registres 1766–1786 Journal Book 28 290 290 (Copy) (7 September 1780); and Protokoli, vol. 3, 18 August 1783 and dates following. See also Paris Academy, PV (footnote 69), passim; and Royal Society of London, ‘Journal Book’ (copy) (footnote 106), passim for the continued receipt of Rozier's Journal. The London-based Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce was one noteworthy institution to begin receiving Rozier's Journal after 1780; see its Transactions, 3 (1785), 201; 5 (1787), 234–235.
  • The importance of the Observations as a journal of science and relevant to the academies seems to drop off, as one of its later editors, Delamétherie, espoused the phlogiston theory of chemistry and with the coming of the French Revolution was violently anti-academy in his thinking (see Neave 1951 7 105 105 and Hahn, 181–182).
  • Evidence suggests that Rozier did offer free subscriptions. In addition to what has already been seen (the receipt of the Journal by numerous institutions, with the Saint-Petersburg Academy seemingly having been the only paying customer), in his printed letter of 1773 The papers of Benjamin Franklin Wilcox W. New Haven 1976 20 27 29 he did state flatly that ‘Chaque mois, à commencer à la fin de Janvier de cette année, je ferai remettre à l'Ambassadeur de votre Souverain residant à Paris, un Exemplaire de mon Journal’.
  • See Kronick Scientific journal publication Cour complet d'agriculture Paris 1801 10 42 44 where he discusses the general problem of a distribution system for periodicals in the eighteenth century; see also McClellan, 311–322.

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