248 THE JUSSIEUS AND THE NATURAL METHOD. 



finally as a master of pbarmacy at Lyon. He there married and became the 

 father of sixteen children, three of whom, Antoiue, Bernard, and Joseph, have, 

 on different grounds, been remarkable among the most celebrated botanists of 

 an epoch of unrivalled brilliancy as regards the cultivation of their science. 



ANTOINE DE JUSSIEU. 



Destined to the ecclesiastical profession and educated at the college of the 

 Jesuits, Antoine had, from an early age, substituted for the rude sports of youth 

 the observation of plants. This taste, already very decided in the child, became a 

 passion for the young man. "He passed," says his biographer, Grand-Jean de 

 Fouchy, " in searching for plants the whole time which his duties left at his dis- 

 posal, and some of that, perhaps, which those duties might have properly claimed." 

 From the age of fourteen years he explored, in his herborizations, the environs 

 of Lyon, la Bresse, Bugey, Forez, &c., and even a part of Dauphiuy. To find 

 means of classifying the plants he collected, he addressed himself to a celebrated 

 jjhysician, M. Goiffon, who placed in his hands the Elements de Bntanicluc of 

 Tournefort. This work gave a fixed direction to his ideas ; and from that moment 

 all traces of the ecclesiastic disappeared. 



Having terminated his collegiate course, he ventured to avow to his father 

 that he felt it impossible to direct his thoughts to any other subject than the 

 study of nature, and, after some irritation and reproaches, this father, though 

 chagrined at seeing his plans disconcerted, but having no grounds for doubting 

 the sincerity of his son, yielded so far as to give him permission to pass from 

 the seminary to the medical school of Montpellier. A place in a public vehicle 

 was retained for the fugitive, but, notwithstanding the rigor of the cold, he 

 made his journey on foot, still herborizing, and reserving his right of transport 

 only for the purpose of sheltering the plants collected on the way. At Mont- 

 pellier, neither his medical studies, nor even several years of practice as physi- 

 cian, in any degree estranged him from botany, for he had there liad the advantage 

 of hearing: Mag-nol. Thenceforward his most earnest wish was to obtain access to 

 the instructions of Tournefort, and as soon as circumstances permitted he repaired 

 to Paris, with a view of attending the annual courses of that great botanist at 

 the Jardin Royal. This was in 1708, and Tournefort, who had already sustained 

 the accident which so prematurely removed him,* was no longer teaching. The 

 surprise of Antoine may Avell be imagined when, not later than the following 

 year, he found himself occupying, at the age of twenty-three, the chair from which 

 he had hoped to receive instruction ; for Isnard, who bad been at first nominated 

 for the succession, after a few lectures retired, and Antoine was then, at the in- 

 stance of the admirers whom he had left at Montpellier, preferred to the vacant 

 place. 



The volumes of our Academy contain several botanical memoirs of Antoine 

 Jussieu on Fungi, on coffee, the simaronha, contrayerva, torch-thistle, catechu, 

 &c. ; and they contain also five on fossil remains, both of animals or vege- 

 tables, a subject of study then entirely new, and which, for that reason, would 

 seem worthy of a passing notice. The first of these five memoirs has for 

 its title: An examination of the causes of the impressions of plants observed on 

 certain stones of the environs of Saint Chaummtt in the Lyonnais, fMemmres de 

 r Academic drs Sciences, 1718;) the second : Physical researches on the ptiri- 

 factians of different parts cf foreign plants and. animals ivhich occur m France, 

 (Ibid., 1721 ;) the third : On the origin and formation of a species of convoluted 

 stones, called horns of Ammon, {Ibid., 1722;) the fourth : On the origin of 



*" As he was going to tho Academy ot Sciences he had his breast violently pressed by the 

 axle of a cart which he could not avoid, and died December "20, 1708, aged only 53 years." 

 {Memoire Historique et Litteraire sur ie College Royal de France, par Abbi Goujet, article 

 Tournefort. ) 



