398 Memorial of George Brozvn Goode. 



University of Santa Fe de Bogota, in Grenada, who carried on a volumi- 

 nous correspondence with Linnaeus and his son from 1763 to 1778,' and 

 Joseph Jussieu, botanist to the King of France, who went to the west 

 coast of South America in 1734 as a member of the commission sent by 

 the Royal Academy of Sciences to make observations to determine more 

 accurately the shape and magnitude of the earth. "His curiosity," says 

 Flourens, "held him captive for many years in these regions, so rich and 

 unexplored, where he often joined the labors of the engineer with those 

 of the botanist. To him Europe owes several new plants, the heliotrope, 

 the marvel of Peru, etc., with many curious and then unknown species." 

 Here, also, should be mentioned the eminent French ornithologist, Fran- 

 cois Levaillant [b. 1753, d. 1824], who was a native of America, and the 

 two Mexican naturalists, also native born, Jose A. Alzate [b. in Ozumba 

 1729, d, in Mexico February 2, 1790], a learned botanist, and Francisco 

 Xavier Clavigero. 



Francisco Xavier Clavigero, the historian of Mexico, was one of the 

 earliest of American archaeologists. Born in Vera Cruz September 9, 

 1 73 1, the son of a Spanish scholar, he was educated at the college of 

 Puebla, entered the Society of Jesus, and was sent out as a missionary 

 among the Indians, with whom he spent thirty-six years. He learned 

 their language, collected their traditions, and examined all their histori- 

 cal records and monuments for the purpose of correcting the misrepre- 

 sentations of early Spanish writers. When the Societ)'- of Jesus was 

 suppressed by Spain, in 1767, Clavigero went to Italy, where he wrote 

 his Storia Antica del Messico, printed in 1780-81. 



Clavigero was a man who, in his spirit, was fully abreast of the science 

 of his day, but whose methods of thought and argument were already 

 antiquated. 



His monastic training led him to write from the standpoint of a com- 

 mentator rather than that of an original observer, and his observations 

 upon the animals and plants of Mexico were subordinated in a very 

 unfortunate manner to those of his predecessor, Hernandez. In the 

 Dissertations, which make up the fourth volume of his history, he 

 throws aside, in the ardor of his dispute with Buffon and his followers, 

 the trammels of tradition, and places upon record many facts concerning 

 American natural history which had never before been referred to. He 

 here presented a list of the quadrupeds of America, the first ever printed 

 for the entire continent, including 143 species; not systematically 

 arranged, it is true, but perhaps as scientific in its construction as was 

 possible at that time, even had its author been trained in the school of 

 I^innseus. 



Clavigero's dissertations are well worthy of the attention of naturalists 

 even of the present day. His essay upon the manner in which the conti- 



' Smith, Correspondence of Linnaeus, II, pp. 5o7-550- 



