Introduction

The reference to ‘green’ in the title of this chapter is to the dark green embroidery on the black costume of members of the Institute. The ‘fever’ may be more difficult to understand a century later. It refers to the excitement often generated by elections, an excitement which could occasionally reach fever pitch. Of course there were some elections that were hardly contentious, such as those of many correspondents where the names of provincial or foreign candidates were hardly known in the Academy generally and the members had to depend heavily on advice from the relevant section. More passion usually went into elections for full (i.e. resident) membership. Many of the contestants, who had made a practice of presenting their research to the Academy over a period of many years, would be quite well known to members. They would be resident in Paris and be fairly well advanced in their careers.

Several would be the holder of a position at one or more of the great scientific institutions of the capital, such as the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, or one of the grandes écoles.