AUGUSTIN-PYRAMUS DE CANDOLLE. 305 
Ecole de Medicine. This grave assembly amused themselves in giy- 
ing me the reception, in full dress, from the ‘ Malade imaginaire.’ 
It was a curious sight to see Cuvier, Lacroix, Biot, and other learned 
Academicians rehearsing the scene from Moliére in the costumes of 
the Comédie Francaise. They had smothered me in an immense 
sugar-loaf paper cap ornamented all over with little lamps all alight. 
In the motion of bowing I constantly expected to be set on fire. 
But the acolyte who conducted me would then press a sponge well 
filled with water borne on the top of the cap, and the water ran 
down, not upon the lamps, but upon my head, —the audience 
laughing uproariously at my surprise.” 
Let us pass on to more serious matters, and rapidly sketch 
the outlines of the scientific career now fairly and promisingly 
opening. For the event which fixed De Candolle in his true 
field of labor was his arrangement (in 1802) with Lamarck — 
who had long since abandoned botany —to prepare a new 
edition of the “ Flore Francaise.” The arrangement was a 
favorable one to De Candolle, both financially and scientifi- 
cally. The new edition was of course an entirely new work, 
one particularly adapted to De Candolle’s genius, and which 
gave him at once a wide reputation. Indirectly this work 
gave origin to the botanical explorations of the provinces of 
France, under the auspices of the government, which engaged 
much of De Candolle’s attention from the summer of 1806 
until he ceased to be a French subject. 
And now, the death of old Adanson left a vacancy in the 
botanical section of the Institute, which De Candolle might 
hope to fill. But parties and personal dislikes, as it appears, 
were not unknown nor uninfluential in the Paris of half a 
century ago. Indeed De Candolle (let us hope without suf- 
ficient grounds) roundly charges lamentable weakness to La- 
marck, and less creditable motives to Fourcroy and even to 
Jussieu, in respect to the nomination and canvass; while of 
the Abbé Hauy he relates, to his credit, that, upon being ap- 
proached with the suggestion that his conscience should pre- 
vent his voting for a protestant, he replied that he was very 
glad of an opportunity to show that he never mixed up relig- 
ious opinions with scientific judgments. Palisot de Beauvois, 
