1854.] Linnean Society. 323 



in the University of Harderwyk, in which position he so distin- 

 guished himself by his acquirements in those branches of science 

 and by his talent in communicating knowledge to his pupils, that in 

 1808 he was appointed Director of the Royal Museum of Natural 

 History and Professor of Natural History and Medicine first at Am- 

 sterdam, and afterwards (in 1810) at Leyden. In 1815 he received 

 from the Government of the Netherlands a commission to visit the 

 Dutch possessions in India in the capacity of Director of Agriculture, 

 Arts and Sciences ; in the execution of which he travelled through 

 the greater part of those possessions between that year and the year 

 1822. While resident in Java, the Society of Arts and Sciences at 

 Batavia was reconstituted under his presidency ; and the 9 th volume 

 of its Transactions contains a detailed description from his pen of 

 the Mountain Chain of the Island of Java, which he had investigated 

 both with reference to its physical characters and its geographical 

 relations. After his return to Europe he published important obser- 

 vations on the Gold Mines and the Natural History of the Moluccas, 

 and a multitude of Essays, Observations, Dissertations and Academi- 

 cal Discourses on subjects connected with Natural History, Agricul- 

 ture, Medicine and Pharmacy, the greater part of which are con- 

 tained in the Memoirs of the Institute of Sciences of Amsterdam and 

 Haarlem, of which (as well as of the Academy which has now suc- 

 ceeded to its place) he was a distinguished Member. A few years 

 ago he relinquished his professorship, and he died in Leyden on the 

 6th of March in the present year, and in the 81st year of his age, 

 of a chronic bronchitis under which he had long been suffering. 

 His scientific attainments in various branches of knowledge were 

 accompanied by great kindness of heart and a most friendly dis- 

 position ; and not only were his doors freely opened to men of 

 science from all countries, but his extensive collections, and his rich 

 and valuable library, were liberally placed at their disposal. His 

 election into the Linnean Society dates from 1835. 



Auguste de Saint-Hilaire, was born at Orleans in the year 1779. 

 At an early age he evinced a predilection for the study of natural 

 history, and when scarcely seventeen attached himself with ardour 

 to entomology. His inclinations were, however, thwarted for a 

 time by the necessity of making a journey into Holstein ; but while 

 there, the acquisition of the German and English languages greatly 

 enlarged his means of obtaining scientific information. On his re- 

 turn after a few years to France, he again applied himself to ento- 

 mology, but soon quitted it for botany, to which he devoted the re- 

 mainder of his life. He had been offered the post of Auditor of the 



