BAILLY A MEMBER OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.--HIS RESEARCHES ON JUPITER'S
SATELLITES.

Bailly was named member of the Academy of Sciences the 29th January,
1763. From that moment his astronomical zeal no longer knew any bounds.
The laborious life of our fellow-academician might, on occasion, be set
up against a line, more fanciful than true, by which an ill-natured poet
stigmatized academical honours. Certainly no one would say of Bailly,
that after his election,

"Il s'endormit et ne fit qu'un somme."

"He fell asleep and made but one nap (or sum)."

On the contrary, we cannot but be surprised at the multitude of literary
and scientific labours that he accomplished in a few years.

Bailly's earliest researches on Jupiter's satellites began in 1763.

The subject was happily chosen. Studying it in all its generalities, he
showed himself both an indefatigable computer, a clear-sighted geometer,
and an industrious and able observer. Bailly's researches on the
satellites of Jupiter, will always be his first and chief claim to
scientific glory. Before him, the Maraldis, the Bradleys, the Wargentins
had discovered empirically some of the principal perturbations that
those bodies undergo, in their revolving motions around the powerful