1815.] M. Parmentier, 171 
for his life in far distant climates to the provident recommendations 
of this paternal chief. 
But his activity was not restricted to the duties of his place ; 
every thing which could be useful occupied his attention. 
When the steam-engines were established, he satisfied the public 
of the salubrity of the waters of the Seine. More lately he occu- 
og himself with ardour in the establishment of economical soups. 
e contributed materially to the propagation of vaccination. It 
was he chiefly who introduced into the central pharmacy of the 
hospitals at Paris the excellent order which reigns there; and he 
drew up the pharmaceutic code according to which they are di- 
rected. He watched over the great baking establishment at Scipion, 
where all the bread of the hospitals is made. The Hospice des 
Menages was under his particular care; and he bestowed the most 
minute attention on all that could alleviate the lot of 800 old per- 
sons of both sexes, of which it is composed. 
At a period when people might labour much, and perform great 
services, without receiving any recompense, wherever men united 
to do good, he appeared foremost; and you might depend upon 
being able to dispose of his time, of his pen, and, if occasion 
served, of his fortune. 
This continual habit of occupying himself for the good of man- 
kind, had even affected his external air. Benevolence seemed to 
appear in him personified. His person was tall; and remained 
erect to the end of his life; his figure was full of amenity; his 
visage was at once noble and gentle; his hair was white as the 
snow—all these seemed to render this respectable old man the 
image of goodness and of virtue. His physiology was pleasing, 
particularly from that appearance of happiness produced by the™ 
good which he did, and which was so much the more entitled to be 
happy that a man who without high birth, without fortune, without 
great places, without any remarkable genius, but by the sole per~ 
severance of the love of goodness, has perhaps contributed as much 
to the happiness of his race as any of those upon whom Nature and 
Fortune have accumulated all the means of serving them. 
Parmentier was never married. Madame Houzeau, his sister, 
lived always with him, and seconded him in his benevolent labours 
with the tenderest friendship. She died at ihe time when her 
affectionate care would have been most necessary to her brother, 
who had for some years been threatened with a chronical affection 
in his breast. Regret for this loss aggravated the disease of this 
excellent man, and rendered his last days very painful, but without 
altering his character, or interrupting his labours. He died on the 
17th December, 1813, in the 77th year of his age. 
