70 LOU7S AGASSI/.. [CHAI-. xvi. 



fesseur renommc. Je viens vous offrir en son nom la chaire vacante 

 et votre patrie se felicitera de retrouver un de ses enfants les plus 

 de'vouds a. la science. 



Veuillez agreer, Monsieur, Tassurance de mes sentiments de haute 

 estime. 



ROULAND. 



The Museum of Natural History or Jardin des Plantes 

 had just passed through a great crisis. Its organization 

 needed a complete reform ; but two successive commit- 

 tees, appointed in 1849 and in 1858, to report on the 

 condition and improvements to be introduced, in order 

 to end the existing anarchy, had most pitifully failed to 

 do anything, owing to the factious opposition of the 

 professors, who were at the same time administrators of 

 that great establishment. The Emperor and his ministry 

 were well acquainted with the difficulties, owing to in- 

 formation obtained from a naturalist of talent, Prince of 

 Canino, Charles Lucien Bonaparte, who was mentioned 

 by Napoleon III. for the directorship, with power to 

 form a new organization and to put into operation all 

 the needed reforms to keep the establishment on a level 

 with foreign institutions of the same sort, or even at 

 their head, as it had been during the time of Cuvier, 

 Lamarck, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Lacepede, Desfon- 

 taines, etc. 



Prince Charles Lucien Bonaparte had spoken to his 

 cousin, the Emperor, of the great value of Agassiz ; he 

 had always maintained intercourse with him, ever since 

 they had proposed a joint expedition to the United 

 States in 1842, and he relied much on Agassiz to reform 

 the Jardin des Plantes; but his death in 1857, at the 

 premature age of fifty-four, put an end to the scheme. 



