AUGUSTIN-PYRAMUS DE CANDOLLE. 503 
we made ourselves at home in the house with perfect abandon. M. 
Berthollet was quite fat and very full-blooded. He feared heat so 
much that he wore clothes only out of respect to society, and at night 
he slept entirely uncovered upon his bed. ‘ What,’ said we, ‘ even 
in winter?’ ‘Oh,’ he answered, ‘ when it is very cold I spread my 
pocket-handkerchief over my feet.’ This man, so high in social 
rank and scientific celebrity, bore contradiction unusually well, and 
loved above all things truth. When the first works of Berzelius 
upon definite proportions became known at Paris, I was very much 
taken with them, and although they were in direct opposition to the 
principles of statical chemistry he sustained, I did not fear to tell 
M. Berthollet the high opinion [ had of them. Far from taking 
offense at this preference, he encouraged me to study the writings 
of Berzelius. 
““M. de la Place was of: quite a different character. He had the 
dryness of a geometrician and the haughtiness of a parvenu. Over 
and above these defects of manner, he was a man of honor and 
worth. . . . He often seconded me, although in truth he thought 
very little of natural history. In our meetings he often had little 
quarrels with M. Berthollet, and would think to silence him by say- 
ing. ‘ But you see, M. Berthollet, what I say to you is mathematics.’ 
‘Eh, par Dieu, what I say to you is physics,’ answered the other, 
‘and that is quite as good.’ . . . Humboldt also came from time to 
time; but he added much of life and interest when he appeared. 
He affected to pass himself as the creator of the science of botanical 
geography, to which he has only added certain facts, and the ex- 
aggeration of a true theory so as to render it almost false. He 
never quite pardoned me for having, in the preface to my memoir 
on the geography of the plants of France, cited those who before 
him had occupied themselves with geographical botany, although in 
this exposition I had, in truth, much amplified his share. 
“Among the other members of the society of whom I have not 
yet spoken, I would chiefly mention Thénard, who was then com- 
mencing a career which has since become very brilliant. His activ- 
ity, his ardor, and his uprightness pleased me very much... . I 
could draw, in an anecdote, the contrast between the characters of 
Thénard and Descotils. . . . It was then very difficult to correspond 
with England, on account of the continental blockade. I happened 
to be the first to receive, by a letter from Dr. Marcet, the news of 
Davy’s great discovery in decomposing the fixed alkalies. By a 
happy chance, it reached me on the morning of the day of our meet- 
