were before unknown), accompanied by as many plates. This was a fine specimen of an important work; and it will always be regretted, that notwithstanding the preparations which had beep made for the engravings, the author did not carry it forward.

Broussonnet returned from London, preceded by the reputation of his book, decorated with the title of Fellow of the Royal Society, and counting among his friends the younger Linneus, Dr. Solander, Sparman, Sibthorp, Scarpa, and several other naturalists of distinction.

An unreserved conformity to the plan and systems of Linneus, would have been of itself no recommendation in the eyes of those who then possessed the most influence in France; and particularly of the respectable Daubenton, who enjoyed much credit both with the academy and the minister: but the amiable character, the mild and engaging manners, and the modest and diffident tone, of Broussonnet, atoned for his scientific creed; and his most zealous protector, was the man whose ideas on that subject were in the greatest opposition to his own. Thus Daubenton appointed him his substitute in the college of France, and his associate at the veterinary school; and was the principal means of procuring his reception at so early an age into the academy: a conduct which was equally honourable to both. He was not elected academician however without a competition which continued for six months; and during that period he presented a series of memoirs, of such merit as could not have failed of ensuring his success, even if he had not been assisted by any patronage. Among these was the plan of his intended great work on ichthyology. His arrangement was nearly the same as that of Linneus; but he enumerated 1200 species, though Linneus had then only 460. As specimens of his manner of description, he gave a memoir on the sea-wolf (anarrhichas lupus), and another on the scomber gladius. He wrote afterward on the spermatic vessels of fishes; and shewed that scales are possessed by several animals of this class, which are commonly thought to be destitute of them. But the article most likely to strike such men of learning as were not professed naturalists, was his Comparison of the Motions of Plants with those of Animals. In this he gave the first complete description of the vegetable which approaches nearest to the appearance of having something voluntary in its oscil

lations, the hedysarum gyrans, a species of sainfoin, of Bengal, that raises and depresses its lateral folioles, day and night, without any external incitement. He gave an interesting account of the determinate directions taken by different parts of plants in spite of obstacles; of the progress of the roots to seek for moisture, and the inflections of the leaves in pursuit of light.

Such subjects were far superior to those of his first writings, which were mere descriptions of species: but he soon rose to still higher; and his Memoir on the Respiration of Fishes belongs entirely to the philosophy of natural history. He here shews the diminution in the intensity of respiration, and in the heat of the blood, progressively from birds to quadrupeds, and from quadrupeds to reptiles; he compares the size of the heart, and the quantity of blood, in different fishes; explains how it is that those which have small bronchial apertures can live out of the water longer than others; and relates some experiments on the different degrees of heat which fishes can support, and on substances that prove fatal to them when mixed with the water in which they swin. The greater part of these ideas and facts had before been contained in his doctoral thesis.

His Memoir on the Teeth of Animals is of the same class. The differences between those of carnivorous and of herbivorous animals; the lamina of enamel which penetrate the substance of the lat ter, and give to their crown the inequali ty necessary for the purposes of trituration; the infinite variety in the number, figure, and position, of the teeth of qua drupeds; and the inference, that from the structure of the human teeth, man is naturally both a frugiferous and carnivo rous animal, in the proportion of 3 to 2→ these facts, though now familiar, were then neither void of novelty nor of interest.

The experiments of Spallanzani and Bonnet on the reproductive power of aquatic salamanders, at this time excited a lively attention among natural philosophers. Broussonnet repeated them on fishes; and found that these also reproduce every part of their fins, if the small bones are not actually torn out by the root.

The whole of the above-mentioned labours were previous to his becoming a member of the academy, and they are nearly all that be published on natural history. It will doubtless appear sur

prising

prising that he quitted a career which he had entered upon with so much distinction, and in which there was reason to expect such happy results from his genius and activity. The occasion of this was, that in the same year in which he was admitted into the academy, he was also appointed secretary to the Agricultural Society; and this was followed by many other causes of turning his attention into a different channel.

Agricultural societies had been established in the several districts of France in 1761: but as they were mostly composed of the great proprietors of land, or of mere farmers, they had evinced little activity in their proceedings; and that of the metropolis had done no more in a period of four-and-twenty years, than publish some instructions. Berthier de Sauvigny, however, who was intendunt of Paris at this time, made it a kind of point of honour to raise this society to notice; and thought the execution of such a design could not be entrusted to any person more capable than M. Broussonnet, with whom he had had occasion to form a connection in England. The latter accordingly lost no time in applying all his exertions to this purpose; and succeeded in giving, in some measure, a new cha racter to the association. Useful memoirs were published every quarter of a year; numerous instructions were circufated in the country-places; meetings of farmers were established in every canton, for their more effectual information in advantageous methods and processes; and prizes were solemnly distributed to such of them as had most successfully applied those processes in practice. These steps quickly brought the society into general respect; and induced the government to form it into a central Corporation, with a cognizance extending over the whole kingdom, for the purpose of collecting and communicating intelligence of discoveries and inventions in agriculture. Persons of the first distinction did not disdain to enrol themselves as its members; the society held public sittings; and in short, it assumed a rank among the great learned asso ciations of the capital.

It cannot be denied that, in his new office, Broussonnet shewed a great flexibility of talent. He gradually abandoned the dryness which forms a characteristic of the school that he had followed in natural history; and soon attained an elegant and well-supported style, rising sometimes to all the warmth

of eloquence. The first of his éloges, that of Buffon, is perhaps rather feeble for so great a name; but in two which followed it, at one time he charms us with the peaceful virtues of Blaveau, and at another excites our admiration of the self-devotion to the public good, and of the probity and frankness, which marked the conduct of Turgot. At the period when every wish scemed directed to a popular revolution, he frequently obtained applause by recalling the public attention to agricultural subjects.

It is well known what influence the activity of an individual can exert on that of a whole body of men; and how powerfully a young man of an ardent character, as Broussonnet then was, may be tempted by such occasions of exercising a brilliant genius, and of acquiring the public favour: but perhaps it is less understood, in what degree that perpe tual self-devotion to the glory of others, which constitutes the first duty of those who are the organs of a learned society, may prove detrimental to the success and display of their personal labours. Broussonnet must have experienced this more than any body else, in a depart ment that is doubtless of the greatest immediate utility; but which, being coufined by its very nature to noticing direct applications, had also, in an equal proportion, the effect of keeping him from access to those general truths which are the only possible objects of really scientific labours; and of making his situation rather an intermediate office between the provinces and the government, than a centre of the correspondence of learned men. He thus entered insensibly on a new career, from the time of his being appointed to this post; and in that carecr he became continually more and more engaged, particularly when the revolution seemed to have called every one to the management of public affairs.

A man who is capable of exercising a personal and independant influence on the welfare of his countrymen by the peaceful investigation of truth, will find it very hazardous, without previously ascertaining his own strength, to agree to become one of the inferior springs of the complicated machine of government; a machine in which the irresistible and simultaneous action of so many wheels, leaves to no individual an uncontrolled motion or will. How much more dangerous must this determination be, at a time when the whole state, delivered up to the passions and caprices of the mul

titude,

One day, on pretence of gathering herbs for the military hospital, he ascended the mountain in a slight dress to avoid suspicion, and accompanied only by some young physicians belonging to the army: he found means to escape from their sight at the turning of a valley; and after climbing the ruggedest paths, which exposed him least to the risk of being seen, as expeditiously as his strength permitted, he darted forward through one of the outlets. But fresh dangers now awaited him. Even the arrival of night did not allow him to rest, for the appearance of a French patrol would have been certain death to him; and thus he wandered among the rocks, in a freezing cold, scantily clothed, and without food, having only a little snow to quench his thirst, starting at the smallest noise, and fearing above all that some of the winding paths might lead him back toward the fatal territory which he had just left. At day-break his foot struck against some object, which proved to be a corpse; perhaps that of a wretched exile, like himself, whom dread of the executioner hurried from his native country. A second night, more terrible than the first, closed in upon him before he had discovered any inhabited place; and it was not till after eight-and-forty hours spent in this manner, and when he was quite overcome with fatigue and want, that he met a poor man who directed and supported him to the nearest Spanish cottage. His sufferings were hardly inferior, in pursuing his journey to Madrid: on foot, without money, and almost without clothes, he offered himself as an assistant to several village-barbers, for no other reward than his victuals, but was refused.

Fortunately, in the bosom of political associations there exists an association of a different nature, which aims at rendering service to them all, without taking part in their continual dissensions. The true friends of the sciences, at the same time that they yield to no class of men in feelings of patriotism, are also united among themselves by the same general ties that attach them to the great cause of humanity. The mere mention of M. Broussonnet's name, and a knowledge of his situation, were sufficient to procure him a kind reception, protection, and assistance of every sort, from all votaries of science, without distinction of country, religion, or political engagements. Messieurs Cavanilles and Ortega, in par

ticular, received him with open arms at Madrid; but no one displayed more ea geruess and delicacy in serving him than sir Joseph Banks. As soon as he learnt the flight of his old friend, he immediately took every active and precau tionary measure for securing to him not only a refuge but an honourable subsistence, in case of his being still further pursued by dangers, as the turn of affairs about this time rendered possible. This kindness proved of more early utility to the subject of it, than M. Broussonnet himself could have anticipated; nor did the persecutions which the latter bad still to undergo, proceed from the quartez that he dreaded.

Spain was already the resort of numerous French emigrants who had left their country at a previous stage of the revoIntion, and the political principles of these made them averse to associate with one who had borne an active part in the innovations which they had themselves opposed. They determined therefore to get rid of him; and in consequence of their suggestions he was first banished to Xeres, and afterward embarked at Cadiz in an English vessel; which being met by two French frigates that were cruising off St. Vincent, he was compelled to take refuge at Lisbon. But even here he did not venture to land openly, lest he should incur new persecution. M. Correa de Serra, a celebrated botanist, obtained from the duke de la Foens (a prince of the blood), president of the Academy of Sciences of this city, permission to conceal him in the house of that society; and though this was still a sort of prison to him, how much he must have preferred it to that of Montpellier! He slept in the library of the academy; and there he passed his time in learning the Portuguese language, and in making valuable extracts from ancient manuscripts containing the narratives of the earliest voy ages performed by that once enterprising people.

The emigrants at the court of Portu gal however, by means of comunica tions from those of Madrid, discovered him in this concealment. He was now subjected to the interference of the inquisition, on pretence of having been a freemason; the prince who protected him was publicly accused of jacobimisin in a pamphlet; and matters proceeded so far, that Broussonnet was glad to assume the character of physician in the train of the ambassador-extraordinary

from

from the United States to the emperor of Morocco. What severe reflections on hunan nature, and on the springs which actuate the machinery of nations, must have arisen in the mind of the man who thus found himself reduced to the necessity of seeking some degree of personal safety in Morocco, for the crime of having thought that one of the most refined communities in Europe was competent to bestow on itself a rational constitution! Yet it was here that he again found happiness, in finding repose, and resuming his original studies;—and here he received intelligence of the change that took place in the political sentiments of his countrymen, and of their exertions to re-establish a regular system of

government.

But the excesses which he had personally witnessed among them, had made too terrible au impression on his imagination, to allow him to confide in these first appearances of tranquillity; and accordingly, after obtaining of the directory the erasure of his name from the list of emigrants, he employed all the influence of his friends to procure his return to Morocco in the character of consul. Being subsequently driven from this post by the plague, he was appointed Consul at the Canary islands; and, as if he thought he could never be far enough from his country, he finally solicited the consulship at the Cape of Good Hope. A minister who was one of his relations, and who has always felt a tender interest in the concerns of the school in which they both were pupils, was obliged to use a sort of violence, for the purpose of determining him to accept a situation in that establishment.

It must be acknowledged that botany, which had again become the favourite pursuit of Broussonnet, had a considerable share in his motives for desiring to live abroad. During the whole period of his residence at Salee, Mogadore, Morocco, and Teneriff, he employed his leisure moments in studying the plants of those places; and the interesting observations which he frequently sent home, were well adapted to atone for his absence. But whatever importance might characterize his researches, they were still of too particular a nature. The proper post for such a man as Broussounet, was a professor's chair; from which his genius and activity might extend the general domain of science, as much as his eloquence would diffuse a taste for i. and MONTHLY MAC, No. 198,

natural history itself, as well as merely the school of Montpellier, was indebted to the hand that brought him back wholly to their service.

During the short period that he was professor at Montpellier, he succeeded, by the assistance of M. Chaptal's pro tection, in rendering the public garden of the school there an object of admiration to botanists, by the order which he introduced into it, and the number of plants that he collected. His lessons attracted a great concourse of students; he had resumed his original labours on the animal kingdom; and he hoped to retrieve the loss of those fifteen years which a single error in his conduct had nearly rendered useless to science and to his fame, when his career in both was cut short in the prime of life.

His last illness was one of those which always surprise us, however common they may be it was perhaps brought on by grief for the loss of his wife, and the sufferings of his daughter (whom he tenderly loved) in childbed; and a fall which he had received in the Pyrénces, doubtless contributed to its production. He one uight sustained a slight stroke of apoplexy: but under the care of his bro ther, and M. Dumas his colleague, he soon recovered the use of his limbs and his senses; and even his memory, which had formerly been so prodigious. A single point of the latter failed him: he was never afterward able to pronounce or write correctly substantives and proper names, either in French or Latin; though he retained a perfect command over the rest of both these languages. Epithets and adjectives presented themselves to his mind in abundance; and he contrived to multiply them in his discourse, in such a striking manner as to make himself understood. If, for instance, he wished to speak of any particular person, he described his appearance, his qualities, and his occupation; or if of a plant, he described its form and its colours. He recognised the name when pointed out to him in a book, but it never occurred to him spontaneously. His case suggests a curious question concerning the nature of memory: Whether this incomprehensible faculty is divided into different and independant depart ments, in which ideas are distributed according to grammatical classes, instead of being connected by the sensations from which the ideas themselves flow?

His health continued to amend daily, till

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