Linnaan Society. 423 



in all probability owes their preservation. When the French army- 

 were about to evacuate the country, the papers and drawings belong- 

 ing to the Commission were demanded by the English general ; but 

 a resolute intimation of their determination to commit the whole to 

 the flames, if the demand were persisted in, delivered through the 

 mouth of M. GeoiFroy, had its proper effect — Lord Hutchinson with- 

 drew his orders, and the Commission were left in possession of the 

 fruits of their researches. 



On his return to Paris from this expedition M. GeofTroy resumed 

 his lectures at the Jardin des Plantes, and occupied himself assi- 

 duously in adding to the zoological collections of the museum and 

 in improving their arrangement. He was elected a Member of the 

 Institute in 1807 ; and in 1810 was again despatched on a mission 

 to Portugal. After encountering great dangers on his road through 

 Spain, arising from the excited state of the country, he arrived in 

 Portugal, where he succeeded in accumulating large collections of 

 minerals and animals, chiefly obtained from the cabinets of the Palace 

 of Ajuda and of the Academy of Lisbon. In pursuance of the capi- 

 tulation for the evacuation of Portugal by the French, the restora- 

 tion of these collections was demanded by General Beresford and 

 Lord Proby ; but M. GeofFroy claiming them as his private property, 

 and the conservators of the coUections from which they w^ere ob- 

 tained declaring that they had been given to him in exchange for 

 other specimens and in return for services, he was suffered to retain 

 them, and in 1815 they were not reclaimed by Portugal. In this 

 last-named year M. Geofi^roy was elected Member of the Chamber of 

 Deputies for his native town. He had been a Member of the Legion 

 of Honour from the establishment of the order ; and became gra- 

 dually associated with a large number of scientific Societies through- 

 out the world. His election as a Foreign Member of the Linnean 

 Society took place in 1824, and he died on the 19th of June 1844. 



A mere list of his zoological Writings would occupy a considerable 

 space. Besides a number of important papers in the * Annales ' and 

 * Memoires du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle,' in the ' Bulletin de la 

 ^Societe Philomathique,' in the * Annales des Sciences Naturelles,' in 

 the ' Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles,' and in other scientific 

 miscellanies, he published separately several works which have con- 

 tributed in no small degree to the progress of zoological and anato- 

 mical science. Among these the most important is his * Philosophic 

 Anatomique,' in two vols., published in 1818 and 1823 ; the first en- 

 titled * Des Organes Respiratoires sous le rapport de la determina- 

 tion et de I'identite de leurs pieces osseuses,* the second ' Des Mon- 

 struosites Humaines.' In this work he endeavours to demonstrate 

 throughout the animal khigdom a uniform plan of organization, re- 

 cognizable by the existence, not of the same organs, but of the mate- 

 rials of the same organs in all. From the period of the publication 

 of his * Philosophic Anatomique,' this " unity of composition " be- 

 came the leading idea of all his writings. It was the subject of a 

 lengthened discussion between him and Cuvier ; and presides over 

 his ' Systeme Dentaire des Mammiferes et des Oiseaux,' published 

 in 1824, his * Considerations Generales sur les Monstres,' in 1826, 



