314 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



and of Daubenton*, and the relations which were soon 

 established between the masters and their pupil were 

 attended with the happiest results to science, for they 

 decided the future prospects of Geoffrey, and saved the 

 life of Haiiy. Indeed, the latter, who had been im- 

 prisoned as a refractory priest a few days before the 



advance by recognising that the angles are constant in different 

 crystals of the same variety. The true laws of crystallisation 

 remained unknown until Haiiy was led to their discovery by a 

 fortunate accident. Struck by the regularity of fracture which was 

 observable in a piece of calcareous spar that accidentally escaped 

 from his hands, and was broken in pieces, Haiiy collected the 

 fragments, examined them carefully, and reduced them into still 

 smaller parts, by which he was led to perceive the constant relations 

 existing between the different forms which he thus obtained. He 

 now resumed the study of physics and mathematics, with the 

 elements of which he had once been well acquainted. Breaking 

 successively all the specimens contained in his own private collec- 

 tion, he measured and calculated the angles by methods which he 

 had himself invented, and, referring the almost infinite number of 

 forms which occur in nature to a small number of primary forms, he 

 finally created an entirely new science — that of crystallographic 

 mineralogy. The humble teacher had thus acquired for himself a 

 renown to which few men of science attain. Honours and dignities 

 were offered to Haiiy from every quarter. Both the republic and 

 the empire in turn sought him out in his retreat, and offered for 

 his acceptance the first chairs in their gift, and the most important 

 scientific missions ; but without being dazzled by these flattering 

 marks of attention, Haiiy remained faithful to his old habits of 

 work and humble privacy. Forgotten by the Boui'bons after the 

 restoration, he died, leaving no wealth beyond the collection on 

 which he had based all his discoveries. This collection, which was 

 so valuable on many accounts, was first bought for a very small sum 

 by an Englishman ; but having subsequently, through the zeal of 

 M. Dufrenoy, been repurchased for France, it is now preserved in 

 the galleries of the Jardin des Plantes. 



* Daubenton was a member of the Academy of Sciences, and a 

 professor at the Jardin des Plantes, as well as at the College de 

 France. He was also a fellow labourer of Buffon. 



