Joaquin Phoenix played Napoleon in Ridley Scott’s latest biopic. Apple TV+
- When Napoleon invaded Egypt, he brought dozens of scientists with him.
- Astronomers, mathematicians and naturalists spent three years exploring the land.
- Napoleon’s invasion failed, but led to groundbreaking scientific work.
When General Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt in July 1798, he not only brought tens of thousands of soldiers with him, but also recruited over 150 scientists, known as savants, to accompany him.
According to one archaeologist, they arrived “with the aim of both study and exploitation.”
A little over a month later, on August 23, 1798, the scientific society still in existence today called the Institut d’Égypte held its first meeting in a magnificent palace in Cairo and appointed Napoleon as its first vice-president.
Napoleon wanted to use the country’s natural resources, history and culture for the benefit of France. He urged scholars to focus on projects such as improving bread ovens, purifying Nile water, and brewing beer without hops.
The scientists’ tasks were complicated by the fact that the ship had sunk with much of their surveying and scientific equipment. Then, after a series of defeats in Egypt, Napoleon returned to France in 1799, leaving many of the scientists stranded.
Despite setbacks, the engineers, mathematicians, naturalists and others spent nearly three years studying, documenting and collecting everything from antiquities to mummified remains to animals largely unknown in the West.
Their work led to some novel discoveries, contributed to the formalization of sciences such as archeology, and inspired a passion for Egypt that continues to this day.
1. The discovery that chemical reactions are reversible
Before chemist Claude-Louis Berthollet realized, the concept that chemical reactions could be reversible was not widely accepted.
However, when examining the salt deposits in the lakes of the Natron Valley, Berthollet found strong evidence for this concept.
The limestone in the lakes was covered with a naturally occurring salt called baking soda, which the Egyptians used to preserve mummified bodies because it absorbed moisture and dissolved fat.
Greco-Roman remains near Wadi El Natrun, the area where Berthollet saw Natron. Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
Berthollet observed that the limestone, which contained calcium carbonate, reacted chemically with salt, also called sodium chloride, to produce baking soda from sodium carbonate.
Under laboratory conditions, chemists knew that the exact opposite reaction was possible, leading Berthollet to reasonably conclude that chemical reactions were reversible and that heat and different amounts of a substance could determine which direction the reaction went.
2. A more formal approach to archaeology
In Napoleon’s time, archeology was not yet a formal science. Most scholars had little experience with artifacts. Sand still buried some temples that had yet to be excavated.
Dominique-Vivant Denon, an artist and writer, was impressed by the ancient monuments he saw. He returned to France with Napoleon and quickly published a book with his descriptions and drawings: Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt.
By the time of Napoleon’s invasion, travelers had long known about Alexandria, Cairo, and other parts of Lower Egypt. The Great Pyramids and the Sphinx were famous. But Upper Egypt was not so well known.
That changed when the scholars came. “Suddenly and with one accord the whole army stood in amazement…and clapped their hands for joy,” Denon later wrote.
Denon’s drawing of Edfu Temple. People give an impression of the enormous size of the monuments. Art Media/Print Collectors/Getty Images
His drawings and descriptions of the temples and ruins in Thebes, Esna, Edfu and Karnak were very popular. Many were depicted in fashionable paintings and inspired decor trends.
Needing to capture everything in a short amount of time, Denon had pushed for two commissions of experts to return and better document the monuments.
Napoleon’s architects and engineers made careful drawings and took measurements of numerous monuments. Others tried to measure the pyramids. (In case you’re wondering, Napoleon never fired cannons at them.)
3. Savigny discovered a new method for classifying insects
Back in France, Jules-César Savigny had to organize the 1,500 species of insects he had brought with him. There was still no systematic way to distinguish one species of moth or butterfly from another. So Savigny invented one.
It turned out that the mouthparts had enough differences to allow Savigny to divide the beetles into species. He brooded over the tiny jaws of the insects. He drew over 1,000 pictures of specimens, some just a centimeter long.
Savigny was only 21 years old and a trained botanist when he arrived in Egypt. He collected invertebrates such as worms, bees, spiders, snails and flies. He also took specimens of starfish, corals and sea urchins.
Savigny’s intricate drawings of arachnids from the Description de l’Egypte. De Agostini Editorial via Getty Images
Savigny applied the same rigor to arachnids, worms, and other animals that lacked backbones. Some of his classification methods are still used today.
4. The discovery of a new species of crocodile that took 200 years to confirm
Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire was convinced that there were two types of crocodiles in the Nile.
Like Savigny, Geoffroy was a prolific collector. While in Egypt, he studied bats, mongooses, turtles and more.
One reason Geoffroy was able to dissect and stuff so many specimens was that he had purchased an eleven-year-old enslaved boy who he had raised to help him with his work.
Geoffroy dissected so many different species of animals that he began to see patterns even between very different species. This led to his theory of a “unity of plan” or “unity of composition,” a type of quasi-evolutionary idea that Charles Darwin would refer to decades later.
Geoffroy’s theories often irritated his fellow naturalists. This included when he tried to show that a mummified crocodile he had taken with him from Egypt was a separate species.
Geoffroy’s depiction of the Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) from the Description de l’Egypte. De Agostini Editorial via Getty Images
Its jaw is completely different from that of the Nile crocodile, Geoffroy said. It was also less aggressive. One of them was exhibited in Paris. “He enjoyed being petted; and each could open his mouth and place his hand between his teeth without the slightest danger,” one report says.
His colleagues said he was wrong about there being a separate species of crocodile. However, over 200 years later, biologist Evon Hekkala and a team of researchers analyzed the DNA of modern crocodiles and some of Geoffroy’s mummies to confirm his suspicions, showing that two different species swam in the Nile: Crocodylus niloticus and Crocodylus suchus.
5. The advent of ophthalmology
An engraving from the Description de l’Egypte, showing the courtyard of a house. Science and society image library via Getty Images
The French doctors who accompanied Napoleon encountered unknown diseases in Egypt. One disease they brought with them to Europe was Egyptian ophthalmia, now known as trachoma, which can cause itchy, swollen eyes and blindness.
It became so widespread that doctors across Europe began studying the disease. Geoffroy, who contracted the disease, was “completely blind” for weeks, he wrote.
Up to this point, ophthalmology was not a formalized branch of scientific research, but the race to find the origin of this disease laid the foundation for its emergence.
Eventually, British doctor John Vetch realized that the pus from the infected eye could spread the disease. Knowing that it was contagious, Vetch developed methods of prevention and treatment that are considered milestones in the history of ophthalmology.
6. The Rosetta Stone helped Champollion decipher the hieroglyphs
For centuries, no one could read hieroglyphics, the pictorial writing that covered many Egyptian monuments.
When the French found the Rosetta Stone during their invasion, they knew it could serve as a kind of translation key.
Deciphering the hieroglyphs would allow scholars to read the writing on numerous other ancient Egyptian texts and monuments.
In 1801, the British negotiated the surrender of France. One condition was that the British would take over the antiquities and the scholars’ collections, which included the Rosetta Stone.
Geoffroy told the British that the scholars would “destroy our property, we will scatter it on the Libyan sands or we will throw it into the sea” before handing it over. They were allowed to keep their notes and collections.
The Rosetta Stone is in the British Museum. Fox Photos/Getty Images
Three texts were engraved on the stone: in Egyptian hieroglyphs, an Egyptian cursive script derived from hieroglyphs, and in ancient Greek. Since the three were identical, the Greek script could help researchers decipher the hieroglyphs.
It took two decades for the French scholar Jean-François Champollion to translate it. Champollion used a copy that the French scholars had made of the record and published.
The Rosetta Stone is currently in the British Museum. Egypt is trying to reclaim it, calling it “spoils of war.”
7. The invention of an engraving machine that sped up the printing process
When the scholars returned to France, many worked to compile the multi-volume Description de l’Égypte, which ran to 7,000 pages and contained everything they had seen and studied in Egypt.
To save some of the laborious engraving work, engineer Nicolas-Jacques Conté developed a machine that automated part of the process.
In order to print the hundreds of illustrations, engravers first had to transfer them to copper plates.
Just one of the many detailed engravings added to the Description de l’Egypte, this one of a mosque in Cairo. Science and society image library via Getty Images
For plaques depicting monuments, Conté’s machine could engrave the sky in the background. The engraver could also program it to create clouds.
What would have originally taken six to eight months was completed in just a few days.
It was still a massive undertaking and was considered France’s most ambitious work of the early 19th century. The first volume was not printed until 1809. The last volume appeared in the late 1820s, almost a decade after Napoloen’s death.
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