TAINE, HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE

(1828-93), Fr. historian and critic; b. Vouziers, in the Ardennes; studied at the Ecole Normale, Paris; early evolved plan for scientific treatment of hist. events; idea not new, but T. was first to insist on its application; he expounded the theory in his Historie del a Litter at ure Anglaise, 1864; weak point was that moral side was left out; this the author felt and tried to introduce it in his esthetic studies, Travels in Italy, 1866; The Ideal in Art, 1869, and in his great hist. work, Origines de la France eon tempo raine, 1876-90, for first time analyzes minutely causes of Fr. Revolution; other works ave the e ays on Livy, Fr. philosophers of XIX. cent., criticism, history, and on La Fontaine. (1854), an American inventor: 6b. in Water town, Ma . He was educated in the public schools. His first invention was the graph a phone and he also took part in the invention of the radiophone and instruments for transmitting sound through distance through the agency of light. He was a member of an expedition sent to the South Pacific to observe the transit of Venus, in 1874. He received medals from many learned institutions for his inventions.