THE OLD ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, PARIS 169 



on those in ordinary use. Yet his methods were soon supplanted by 

 those of the Jussieus. 



There was a widespread feeling that the studies of the academy 

 ought to be made of practical value to the people at large. For this 

 reason Duhamel du Monceau, though abstract and severe in his 

 methods of study, sought to use his knowledge for the benefit of agri- 

 culture and other industries. He improved the cereals of France, im- 

 proved, if he did not introduce, the cultivation of the potato, discovered 

 and taught the use of fertilizers, made forestry a science and published 

 a treatise upon it which became a classic. Absence in England pre- 

 vented his appointment as director of the Eoyal' Gardens. This posi- 

 tion was given to du Fay. Before the century was ended BufEon had 

 grasped and proclaimed the unity of all branches of science. There 

 was a growing interest during the last half of the century in zoology. 

 Eeaumur gave a great deal of attention to measures for increasing the 

 collections in the museums, and studied the nature and habits of insects 

 so thoroughly that he began, though he did not live to complete it, a 

 six-volume work entitled "Memoires pour servir k I'histoire des 

 insectes." Of this work Buffon and many others made constant use. 

 Buffon confessed his indebtedness also to the " History of Birds " 

 written by Brissbn, a physician and member of the academy. As repre- 

 senting the knowledge of ornithology at the date of its publication, 

 about 1750, this work may be profitably consulted even now. In this 

 branch of knowledge France was behind Sweden, Germany and Eng- 

 land. Du Fay and Maupertuis were interested in the study of animals, 

 especially salamanders and scorpions, yet this study was regarded by 

 them only as a byplay. There was at the middle of the century only a 

 single conchologist in France, Dezallier d'Argenville, and he was not in 

 the academy. His book is still consulted. Laurent Jablot is said to 

 have been the first man to study polyps and infusoria. As early as 1718 

 he anticipated not a few of the discoveries published to the world in 

 1740 by de Trembly of Geneva. Prior to the time of Eeaumur polyps 

 had been classed with vegetables. Anatomy and physiology were studied 

 chiefly with reference to the science of healing. In the previous cen- 

 tury men had been interested in these branches of study, some of them 

 for their own sake independent of their relation to medicine. At the 

 beginning of the eighteenth century Jean Mery, Joseph Guichard and 

 Alexis Littre represented these subjects in the academy. Mery entered 

 the academy about the time that Harvey made his discovery of the 

 circulation of the blood, a theory the academy was slow to accept. Mery 

 believed that in the embryo the blood circulates through the lungs. 

 This theory was denied by J. G. Duvemey, who gave special attention 

 to the study of the glands and their relation to the urine and the brain. 

 His papers were the subject of long and earnest debate. The problem 



VOL. LXXX. — 12. 



