"Murray Leinster - Time Tunnel " - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

"I am getting interested," said Pepe. "There is a de
Bassompierre in . . ."
-Note: This is historical fact. The theory was recorded
with derisive gestures by John Asdruc, physician to
Louis XIV of France. The germ theory was held by
Augustine Hauptman and Christian Longius, among
others M. L.
"Someone wrote to Jean-Francois Champollion." Harrison
went on morbidly, "the Egyptologist. The Rosetta stone had
just been discovered, but nobody could make use of it yet.
The letter told him exactly how to decipher the Egyptian
inscription. Champollion paid no attention for sixteen years.
Then he tried the system suggested, but without referring to
the letter, which be may have forgotten. It worked. But it
had been described in 1806 by de Bassompierre."
"Evidently a universal genius," agreed Pepe. "But . . ."
"Lagrange, the mathematician," Harrison went on, dis-
tastefully, "had a correspondent who explained to him the
principles of statistical analysis. He died before finishing
his Mkchanique Analytique, so there's no way to know if he
paid any attention. But the description was so clear that you'd
swear Professor Carroll wrote it. But it happened to be de
Bassompierre. It was also de Bassompierre who around 1812
corresponded with the Academic des Sciences, and offered
the interesting theory that atoms might be compared to min-
iature solar systems, with negatively charged particles orbit-
ing complex nuclei of different masses. He added that all the
elements heavier than bismuth would be found to be unstable,
breaking down at different rates to other and lighter ele-
ments."
"Such statements," said Pepe with reserve, "are not easy to
believe. After all, Madame Curie . . ."
"I know!" said Harrison fretfully. "It isn't possible. But
this same de Bassompierre, who, by the way, died in 1858 at
the age of liinety-one, also wrote to Desmarest, the geologist,
and told him the facts of life about petroleum, including the
products of fractional distillation. Do you see why I wish
I'd never thought of looking up this stuff?"
Pepe sipped at his drink and put it down.
"I confess." be observed, "that I am interested in this de
Bassompierre! I knew nothing of this! But where does it
lead?"
"I'm afraid to find out," admitted Harrison. "But Talleyrand
is said to have been his close friend, and Talleyrand never
made a real mistake in guessing what would come next. Na-
poleon said he was possessed of a devil. Instead, he possessed
the friendship of de Bassompierre. I can show you in Talley-
rand's papers that he'd predicted the American civil war.
Look, Pepe! De Bassompierre knew that there'd be a Maxi-
milian. Emperor of Mexico, fifty years in what was -then the