14 Biographical Memoir of Michel Jdanscn. 



could have even embraced, not to say entered into, the minute 

 investigation, of so many different objects, and what treasures 

 would suffice for their publication. 



In fact, the commissioners of the Academy found the execu- 

 tion very unequal. The parts foreign to natural history were 

 reduced to mere indications ; two-thirds of the figures were en- 

 graved or sketched in works well known ; many of the volumes 

 were swelled with materials which still required to be digested. 

 The commissioners, therefore, gave M. Adanson the very wise 

 advice, to detach from this vast mass the objects of his own pe- 

 culiar discoveries, and to publish them separately, contenting 

 himself with pointing out in a general manner, the new relations 

 which he might perceive between them and other beings. 



The sciences will long have to regret that he refused to fol- 

 low this advice ; for various memoirs, indej)endent of his great 

 works, shew that he was possessed of much sagacity in the exa- 

 mination of particular objects. We shall now present a short 

 analysis of his principal writings. 



The Teredo, the shell which bores vessels and piles, and 

 which has menaced the very existence of Holland, had been 

 examined by several authors. M. Adanson was, however, the 

 first who made known its true nature, and its analogy with the 

 pholas and bivalves. The description which he gives of it is a 

 model of its kind* : and similar praise is due to his descrip- 

 tion of the Baobab f. This is a tree of Senegal, the largest in 

 the world, for its trunk is sometimes 24 feet in diameter, and 

 its height from 120 to 150. The name of Adansonia was given 

 it, after that of the botanist who had so well described it, and 

 Linnaeus generously retained this name, notwithstanding all the 

 reasons which he had to complain of the person from whom it 

 was derived. 



The history of the gum trees |, and the numerous articles 

 which M. Adanson inserted in the Supplement of the first 

 Encyclopaedia, unite, along with a great many new facts, much 

 erudition and precision. They shew, by the fact, that our lan- 

 guage is capable of expressing with clearness all the forms of 



• Memoires de T Academic for 1759. f Ibid. 1761. 



X Memoires de TAcademie, 1773 and 1779. 



