Commandant E. le Puillon de Boblaye. 201 
soon developed in him a scorbutic complaint, which obliged 
him to return to Europe for proper treatment. Believing 
himself cured, he resumed his labours on the map of France, 
at which he continued, as head of the Topographical Section, 
till 1842. At this period, the veneration which his fellow- 
countrymen entertained for his family, the esteem which his 
extensive knowledge had procured for him, and the confi- 
dence which his frank and loyal character had inspired, 
caused him to be elected, by a large majority, deputy for the 
arrondissement of Pontivy, his native town. 
From that moment a new series of ideas took possession 
of his mind, and he abandoned geology. Having accepted 
a political trust, he thought that all his time was due to 
his country : what time was left from examining projected 
laws, the labours of the committees appointed by the Cham- 
ber, and attending to the necessities and wants of his con- 
stituents, he devoted to the study of the national finances. 
In 1843, he published a curious and important synoptical 
table of the revenues, expenses, debt, and public credit in 
France. This table was to be followed by others, all the 
materials for which were already collected. 
But the terrible attacks his health had sustained since 
1827, had produced a great change on his vigorous constitu- 
tion. The activity of his mind, and his love for study, pre- 
vented him from perceiving the progress of his disease and 
yielding to the advice of his friends, who recommended rest. 
Last year, wishing to finish a great geological map of Brit- 
tany, long since commenced, he set out for that province, 
and took part in the military evolutions of the camp of Plé- 
lan, near Rennes. He there fatigued himself too much, and 
returned to Paris extremely unwell. The germs of the dis- 
ease he had contracted in the Ardennes, in Greece, and in 
Africa, soon developed themselves with such virulence, that 
it was impossible for his physicians to arrest its progress. 
Boblaye bore the pain of this dreadful disease with a for- 
titude which never for a moment gaye way. He saw the 
approach of death with tranquillity and resignation, and 
breathed his last on the 4th December 1843, solely occupied 
with those he left behind him, his wife and young child. On 
