Francois Perrier, who was born at Valleraugue (Gard), on the 18th of
April, 1835, descended from an honorable family of Protestants, of
Cevennes. After finishing his studies at the Lyceum of Nimes and at
St. Barbe College, he was received at the Polytechnic School in 1853,
and left it in 1857, as a staff officer.
Endowed with perseverance and will, he owed all his grades and all his
success to his splendid conduct and his important labors. Lieutenant
in 1857, captain in 1860, major of cavalry in 1874, lieutenant-colonel
in 1879, he received a year before his death the stars of
brigadier-general. He was commander of the Legion of Honor and
president of the council-general of his department.
General Perrier long ago made a name for himself in science. After
some remarkable publications upon the trigonometrical junction of
France and England (1861) and upon the triangulation and leveling of
Corsica (1865), he was put at the head of the geodesic service of the
army in 1879. In 1880, the learned geodesian was sent as a delegate to
the conference of Berlin for settling the boundaries of the new
Greco-Turkish frontiers. In January of the same year, he was elected a
member of the Academy of Sciences, as successor to M. De Tessan. He
was a member of the bureau of longitudes from 1875.
In 1882, Perrier was sent to Florida to observe the transit of Venus.
Thanks to his activity and ability, his observations were a complete
success. Thenceforward, his celebrity continued to increase until his
last triangulating operations in Algeria.
[Illustration: GENERAL FRANCOIS PERRIER.]
"Do you not remember," said Mr. Janssen recently to the Academy of
Sciences, "the feeling of satisfaction that the whole country felt
when it learned the entire success of that grand geodesic operation
that united Spain with our Algeria over the Mediterranean, and passed
through France a meridian arc extending from the north of England as
far as to the Sahara, that is to say, an arc exceeding in length the
greatest arcs that had been measured up till then? This splendid
result attracted all minds, and rendered Perrier's name popular. But
how much had this success been prepared by long and conscientious
labors that cede in nothing to it in importance? The triangulation and
leveling of Corsica, and the connecting of it with the Continent; the
splendid operations executed in Algeria, which required fifteen years
of labor, and led to the measurement of an arc of parallels of nearly
10° in extent, that offers a very peculiar interest for the study of
the earth's figure; and, again, that revision of the meridian of
France in which it became necessary to utilize all the progress that
had been made since the beginning of the century in the construction
of instruments and in methods of observation and calculation. And it
must be added that General Perrier had formed a school of scientists
and devoted officers who were his co-laborers, and upon whom we must
now rely to continue his work."
The merits of General Perrier gained him the honor of being placed at
the head of a service of high importance, the geographical service of
the army, to the organization of which he devoted his entire energy.
In General Perrier, the man ceded in nothing to the worker and
scientist. Good, affable, generous, he joined liveliness and good
humor with courage and energy. Incessantly occupied with the
prosperity and grandeur of his country, he knew that true patriotism
does not consist in putting forth vain declamations, but in
endeavoring to accomplish useful and fruitful work.--_La Nature._
General Perrier died at Montpellier on the 20th of February, 1888.
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