MEMOIR OF LOUIS-CLAUDE-MARIE RICHARD. 427 



Tlie Revolution had already broken our, and almost all 

 Richard's friends and protectors had vanished or lost their 

 power and influence. The promises which had been made 

 to him before his departure were forgotten, and the im- 

 mense collections that he brought back excited no attention. 

 A herbarium of 3000 species of plants, principally new; an im- 

 mense number of cases, full of quadrupeds, birds, insects, and 

 shells ; with a valuable series of minerals and rocks, were the 

 fruits of his expedition. Never perhaps had such a mass of 

 materials been collected by a single individual, and in so 

 brief a period of time; yet the man, whose generous devotion 

 to science had procured these stores, was left unrewarded, and 

 abandoned to privations which were the more severely felt, as 

 the fatigues of this lengthened journey had materially impair- 

 ed his health. His constitution had never been robust, and he 

 experienced much suffering from hernia and a chronic affec- 

 tion in the bladder, which he had contracted during his resi- 

 dence in America. Thus neglected and ailing, he naturally 

 felt a desire for affectionate domestic society, and he took a 

 wife the year after his return, 1790; and from that time for- 

 ward devoted himself to his family, and abstracted himself 

 as much as possible from general society. The neglect with 

 which he had been treated by his countrymen, combined with 

 bodily malady, produced an unfavourable effect on his tem- 

 per, and this was shown by his general conduct towards men 

 of science. For many years he lived in the closest retire- 

 ment, and we possess no botanical work of any importance 

 which bears the date of this period. He, however, bestowed 

 much attention on Zoology; his collection of shells was among 

 the richest and most accurately named, and he always assert- 

 ed that his mode of classification had influenced, in a mea- 

 sure, those theories which were soon afterwards broached by 

 authors of the highest repute in this department of Natural 

 History. About this time, too, he commenced that admirable 

 collection of analytical drawings which he never ceased to 

 increase until the very close of his life. 



The numerous proofs of esteem which he received from 



