i2 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



cles Plantes, but after the revolution as the Museum of Natural 

 History. 



Begun in 1633 as a royal garden, its design was to furnish better 

 opportunities for the study of pharmacy and to preserve rare specimens 

 of flowers and herbs. The garden was in reality founded by the two 

 physicians, Herouard and Guy de la Brosse, in the time of Louis XIII. 

 There was a garden of apothecaries in Paris in the fifteenth century. 

 But one far more extensive than any yet known was desired, one in 

 which botany could be studied with advantage to medical science. The 

 king favored the proposal of Herouard and de la Brosse as early as 

 1626, but as the faculty of the university opposed it, nothing was done 

 till 1633. The garden Avas placed under the charge of la Brosse as 

 superintendent, with Herouard as assistant. The latter soon died and 

 his place was taken by Charles Barnard. Salaries were small, yet 

 sufficient to support life. Three demonstrators and an operator in 

 botany were appointed and a small sum of money was set aside for 

 purchases and the payment of extra help. The garden was to contain 

 a sample of all simple and compound drugs. It consisted of twenty- 

 four acres and was situated in the faubourg of St. Victor. 



To this garden la Brosse gave his life. He laid out the grounds, 

 planted herbs and trees, formed collections and organized courses of 

 study in botany, chemistry, natural history and astronomy. By 1640 

 there were 2,560 specimens of plants for examination, all of them 

 valuable. Under Vallot, the successor of la Brosse, the garden suf- 

 fered, but under the direction of Fagan, a nephew of la Brosse and 

 the chief physician of Louis XIV., it improved. Things went from 

 bad to worse under Chiroc, who cared for nothing but anatomy, but 

 under Dufoy, a real lover of nature, there was a change for the better. 

 He made Buffon his successor, who, from 1739 to 1788 was at the head 

 of affairs and whose ideas of what the garden should be were largely 

 realized. Cuvier followed him. Cuvier came to the garden a poor 

 boy, well educated in the classics, mathematics and literature, but 

 supremely fond of natural history. He was soon made a professor. 

 He studied comparative anatomy and through his contributions to this 

 branch of knowledge gained great honor. He was a professor in the 

 College of France, a member of the French Academy, of the Academy 

 of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, and of nearly all the learned socie- 

 ties in the world. But he permitted neither honors nor requests from 

 any source whatever, to interrupt his favorite studies. His modest 

 home Avas in the garden itself, and during his lifetime Avas the meeting 

 place of most of the more famous scientists of Europe. The house, 

 covered with vines and adorned with a bust, is preserved, and marked 

 as the house of Cuvier. 



Through the influence of Bernardino do St. Pierre the convention 



