254 Royal Society : Anniversary 1841 : Obituary notices. 



rature, were hereafter to be deemed subordinate, and to be followed 

 merely as i-ecreations from severer study. 



A visit to Paris, which he made in 1795, gave him the opportu- 

 nity of attending the lectures of Cuvier, Fourcroy, Vauquelin, and 

 other distinguished Professors of that period, and of forming friend- 

 ships with Desfoutaines and Lamarck. He always prided himself 

 in having been the pupil of Desfontaines, in particular, towards 

 whom he continued through life to feel the warmest gratitude and 

 aflPection. 



The establishment of the Society of Physics and Natural History 

 at Geneva, which took place, after his return, under the auspices of 

 the celebrated De Saussure, gave a fresh and powerful impulse to 

 his exertions ; as was evinced by the numerous memoirs which he 

 presented to that Society. 



The state of Geneva being, soon after this period, absorbed into 

 the French empire, De CandoUe was induced to quit that city and 

 attend the medical lectures in Paris ; a course of study which, tend- 

 ing to enlarge his views of the physiologj'^ of organized beings, con- 

 tributed greatly to the success with which he afterwards cultivated 

 the Philosophy of Botany. While at Paris, he founded, in conjunc- 

 tion with his friend M. Benjamin Delessert, the Societe Philantro- 

 pique. One of the first advantages resulting to the public from this 

 institution was the distribution of economical soups throughout the 

 diiferent quarters of the city. Of this institution he was the active 

 secretary for ten years ; during which period another society was 

 also formed under his direction and management for the Encourage' 

 ment of National Industry. 



In 1804 he gave lectures on Vegetable Physiology at the College 

 de France, and published an outline of his course in 1805, in the 

 Principes de Botanique prefixed to the Flore Fran^aise. 



In 1 806 he was commissioned by the French Government to col- 

 lect information on Botany and the state of Agriculture through the 

 whole of the French empire, the limits of which, at that time, ex- 

 tended beyond Hamburgh to the north, and beyond Rome to the 

 south. Every year, during the following six years, he took a long 

 journey in the fulfilment of the task assigned him, and drew up a 

 report of his observations for the minister. In these annual reports, 

 however, he did not confine himself to the special objects of his com- 

 mission, but made known his views with regard to the internal ad- 

 ministrations of the countries he visited, suggesting at the same time 

 measures for their amelioration and for the correction of existing 

 abuses. He had projected a great work on the agricultural state of 

 the empire, and had even executed considerable portions of it, com- 

 prehending the French Flora ari'anged according to modern views 

 of classification, when the political events of 1 814 put an entire stop 

 to the work. 



In 1807 he was appointed Professor of Medicine at Montpellier; 

 and in 1810, a chair of Botany was instituted in the same Academy, 

 which he was invited to occupy. Under his superintendence, the 

 Botanical Garden of that city was more than doubled in extent, and 



