QUINET
EAMBAUD
of the Academy of Sciences from 1834
onward. Quetelet wrote very popular
astronomical works (Astronomic elementaire,
1826, etc.) as well as academic papers of
importance. He was one of the founders
of the modern science of meteorology, and
may almost be described as one of the
founders of statistical science. He was
eight times President of European Con
gresses of Statisticians. Other able works
of his deal with anthropology (Sur I homme
et le developpement de, ses facultes, 2 vols.,
1835 a Rationalist work), physics, and
mathematics. He edited the Annales de
rObservatoire Royal de Bruxelles and the
Annuaire de V Observatoire. There is a
biography by Mailly (1875), and a monu
ment has been erected to him at Brussels.
D. Feb. 17, 1874.
QUINET, Professor Edgar, French poet and historian. B. Feb. 17, 1803. Ed. Strassburg, Geneva, Paris, and Heidel berg Universities. Quinet was an indus trious student of French and German literature in his early years. He translated Herder s Eationalistic Ideen zur Philo- sophie der Geschichte der Menschheit (3 vols., 1827) and wrote an Essai on it (1828). Under a commission from the Institut, he accompanied the French expedi tion to the Morea, and published a work on it (1830). In 1840 he was appointed pro fessor of foreign literature for the Lyons Faculty of Letters. The publication of his lectures on religion (Le genie des religions, 1842), in which he pleaded for liberal religion and denounced the Churches, so raised his reputation that he was appointed professor at the College de France. He mercilessly attacked Catholicism, even from his chair, and in 1846 he was deposed for collaborating with Michelet in writing Les Jesuites (1844) and publishing Le chris- tianismeet la revolution (1845). He took an active part in the Eevolution of 1848, and ho shared the exile of so many Eationalists in 1852. From that date he lived for twenty years in Brussels, lecturing and issuing work after work of an advanced
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Rationalist character (Merlin I enchanteur,
2 vols., 1860 ; Histoire de mes idees, 1860 ;
La creation, 2 vols., 1870 ; etc.) He
returned to Paris in 1871, and sat among
the anti-clericals in the National Assembly.
Quinet s works form a collected edition of
twenty-eight volumes (1857-79), and were
of the highest importance in the ration
alization of France and Belgium. D.
Mar. 27, 1875.
RABL, Professor Carl, M.D., Austrian anatomist. B. May 2, 1853. Ed. Leipzig, Jena, and Vienna Universities. He began to teach at Vienna University in 1883, and two years later became professor there. In 1886 he removed to Prague University, and since 1904 he has been at Leipzig. In 1908 he refused an invitation to Vienna University. He is professor of anatomy and Director of the Anatomical Institute at Leipzig, Privy Councillor, and a member of the Munich, Vienna, Gottingen, Christiania, Erlangen, and other scientific Academies. In Was Wir Ernst Haeckel Verdanken (ii, 1-5) he tells how Haeckel made a Eation- alist of him in his youth. " I was happy," he says, " to find a free doctrine, based on human knowledge, displace the Church teaching in which my whole environment was steeped." In the famous controversy about " Haeckel s forgeries " in 1909 Pro fessor Eabl warmly defended Haeckel and completely discredited his opponent (Frank furter Zeitung, Mar. 5, 1909).
RAMBAUD, Professor Alfred Nicolas,
D. es L., French historian. B. July 2, 1842. Ed. Ecolo Normale Superieure. In 1871 Eambaud was appointed professor under the Faculty of Letters at Caen, and in 1873 at Nancy. He was an authority on Eussia, having won his degree by a thesis on Eussian history, and in 1872, 1874, and 1877 he discharged Government missions in Eussia. He was an important intermediary in the Franco-Eussian entente. In 1879 Jules Ferry, whom he supported, made him chef de cabinet and Minister of Public Instruction. In 1883 he became 632
