B U F F O N. 



him to carry on, in affluence and independence, those 



\ scientific pursuits to which the rest or his life was de- 



1. On his return from Italy to France, he re- 

 paired to Angers, where he quarrelled with an English- 

 man, and having wounded his adversary, he took re- 

 fuge in Paris. From Paris he went to England, 

 where he remained only three months, and on his re- 

 turn to France, he began that scientific career which 

 lu afterwards pursued with so much success and glory. 



The first work published by BufFou, was a trans- 

 lation of Hales' I'cgctablc Static*, which appeared in 

 17:55, and which was followed in 174-0 by a transla- 

 tion, from the Latin, of Newton's Fluxions. The 

 prefaces with which these translations were enriched, 

 were distinguished by that dignity of stile which 

 characterised all the subsequent works of thi illus- 

 trious naturalist. 



With the view of applying the physical sciences 

 to objects of real practical utility, Buffon made a 

 course of experiments on the strength of wood, from 

 which it appeared, that, in order to give a ligneus con- 

 sistency to the alburnum, it is necessary to strip the 

 bark from the foot of the tree at the time of the sap, 

 and to allow it to dry, and lo wither after this opera- 

 tion. The attention of Buffon was likewise turned 

 to the burning mirrors of Archimedes, and he had 

 the honour ofbeing the first among the moderns who 

 constructed an instrument approaching in its efficacy 

 to the supposed invention ot the Syracusan geometer. 

 In the year 1748, he proposed a lamp a echelons, 

 which was executed about thirty years afterwards 

 by the Abbe Rochon. See BURNING MACHINE, 

 where a full account of Buffon's Burning Mirror will 

 be found. 



In the year 1739* Buffon succeeded M. Dufai as 

 Intendant of the Royal Garden and Cabinet, an event 

 which fixed the resolution which he had formerly 

 made of devoting himself wholly to the study of na- 

 tural history. He now began to collect materials 

 for his great work, and in 1744, he published z part 

 of it under the title of A Theory of the Earth, 

 which he afterwards included in his larger work. 

 The first volume of his Natural History appeared in 

 1749, and the book was completed in 1767, in fifteen 

 volumes 4to, or 31 vols. 12mo. 



The freedom of his religious sentiments, which ap- 

 pears in all his works, provoked the indignation of 

 the Sorbonne, but he had the good sense to dissipate 

 the fears, and to disarm the hostility of the learned 

 doctors, by an explanation with which they were 

 completely satisfied. To the external duties of reli- 

 gion he was uniformly exemplary. He regularly at- 

 tended church and went to mass ; and every Sunday 

 he distributed a Louis among the neighbouring poor. 



In the year 1743, Buffon was admitted a member 

 of the French academy, and at his admission he de- 

 livered a discourse, entitled, Philosophical Remarks 

 upon Style, which was regarded as one of the finest 

 specimens of composition. In 1752, he married 

 Mademoiselle de Saint Belin, by whom he had a 



son, who seems to have inherited a portion of hit fa- 

 thcr's talents. In the gardens of Mon-.bard he erect- 

 cd a simple column in honour of his father, with this 

 inscription : 



<-lne turri liumili* eolumna 

 I'arenti auoJUiun Jiuffan, 1785. 



On seeing this monument, Buffon burst into tean, 

 and said, " Son, this will do you honour." In th- 

 year 1795, this youngman was condemned to death 

 by the Revolutionary Tribunal ; and when he mount- 

 ed the scaffold, he exclaimed, with dignity and com- 

 posure, " My name is Buffon !" 



After Buffon had completed his History of Qua- 

 drupeds, a severe indisposition, which lasted nearly 

 two years, interrupted the progress of his labours, 

 and prevented him from finishing his History of Birds, 

 the two first volumes of which appeared in the year 

 1771. In this work he received great assistance from 

 M. Guenaud de Monbelliard, whose mode of think- 

 ing and writing could scarcely be distinguished from 

 his own. The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth volumes 

 were the joint production of both these naturalists ; 

 and the labours of each were marked out by their 

 own names. In the seventh, eighth, and ninth vo- 

 lumes, Buffon was assisted by the Abbe Bexon, who 

 formed the nomenclature, and drew up the greater 

 part of the description. 



In 1771, Louis XIV. conferred upon Buffon a 

 singular mark of his favour, by erecting his estate 

 into a compte and granting him the smaller customs.* 

 The French king was even anxious to be particular- 

 ly acquainted with Buffon, and after inviting him to 

 Fountainbleau, wh^ie he consulted him on several 

 points relative to the cultivation of wood, he offered 

 him the administration of all the forests in his domi- 

 nions, a situation which Buffon refused to accept. 



In 1773 and 1774, he published in 2 vols. 4to, a 

 supplement to his Natural History, containing an 

 introduction to the History of Minerals. In 1777, he 

 added a supplementary volume to his History of 

 Quadrupeds ; and in the same year he published ano- 

 ther 4to volume as a supplement to the History of 

 Man. In 1778, he published a fifth 4to volume " On 

 the Epochs of Nature," which is a continuation and 

 an enlarged explanation of his Theory of the Earth ; 

 and in 1782, he completed his supplements by a sixth 

 4to volume on Quadrupeds. 



In the prosecution of these labours, by which the 

 science of natural history has been so greatly enrich- 

 ed, Buffon was indefatigable in his application, and 

 in general employed fourteen hours ever)' day in his 

 study. Even in his early life, when he frequented 

 the evening parties at Paris, and did not return to 

 Montbard till 2 o'clock in the morning, he ordered 

 a boy to call him at five, and to drag him out upon 

 the floor if he shewed the least disposition to linger 

 in bed. After he was dressed, he dictated letters, 

 and regulated his domestic affairs ; and at six o'clock 

 he resumed his studies at the pavilion, called the tower 

 of St Louis. This pavilion was situated at the cx- 



This act of the French king has been generally misunderstood. In one of his letters to Mr Smellie, Buffon himself ob- 

 serves, " You likewise say that the king ennobled me, as a mark of his satisfaction with my work. I assure you, that I was 

 noble before, as well as my ancestors, and that the king only granted me another title (un 'titre de plus) iu erecting IIIT eetatf 

 into a compte." Kerr's Life ofSmeUie, vol. ii. p. 132, 138. 



