THE JARDIN DES PLANTES. 1 99 



Meanwhile the Marquis, being an incapable administrator, was 

 getting deeper and deeper into debt. By way of economy he 

 suggested that the chair of mineralogy, occupied by Faujas de St. 

 Fond, might be suppressed ; the Chevalier de Lamarck also, he 

 thought, " peut-etre utile, mais pas absolument necessaire." The 

 garden was proud of Faujas, the great geologist, and of La- 

 marck, " who had enriched the cabinet, though he was poor, by 

 gifts of specimens, engravings, rare plants, seeds, and minerals 

 from Holland and Germany." The officials of the garden rose in 

 revolt and recommended to the king that the useless and expensive 

 intendant be the one dispensed with. In the summer of 1791 

 the Marquis sent in his resignation. 



The next incumbent of this office was Beniardin de St. Pierre, 

 who proved to be a diligent, economical and exact administrator. 

 It was he who suggested a menagerie for the Jardin des Plantes, 

 and he thus became the founder of the French Zoological Gar- 

 dens. About this time the garden officials were elaborating a 

 scheme for the conversion of the royal garden and cabinets into 

 a natural history museum, and in 1793 the scheme was adopted, 

 a plan in which the post of intendant found no place, and Ber- 

 nardin de St. Pierre was retired on a small indemnity. 



The new system provided for twelve professors, directed by a 

 principal annually reelected ; all the lectures free and open to the 

 public. The chair of mineralogy was occupied by Daubenton; 

 botany, A. de Jussieu ; horticulture, Thouin ; natural history, 

 Geoffroy St. Hailaire; geology, Faujas de St. Fond. Chairs were 

 also established in anatomy, comparative physiology and zoology. 

 The chair of botany being occupied, a chair of insect zoology 

 was created for Lamarck, who was also commissioned to found a 

 library of natural history. 



" Meanwhile the museum inaugurated a new career of laborious and 

 fruitful activity. But the people of Paris continued (and continue still) 

 to call it the Jardin des Plantes, and to love it chiefly for the beasts and 

 birds which Bernardin added to its charms, and for the Swiss valley, which 

 Andre Thouin laid out ou the land acquired by Bufifon with so much 

 difficulty." 



M. M. B. 



