TREATISE ON MILCH COWS. 



CHAPTER I. 



ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY. 



To give the history of my discovery, I must speak of myself. My narrative 

 shall be succinct and short, although my labors have been protracted. But this 

 is a condition attached to discoveiies generally; we must meditate long upon 

 what an instant has sufficed to reveal or suggest to us. It will be seen that, in 

 my case, difficulties were always renewing. 



I am the son of a gardener, and I followed for a long time this trade of my 

 forefathers. Nature had given me an observing turn of mind ; I was fond of 

 bringing things together of instituting comparisons between them of deducing 

 consequences. At an early period I became possessed by the idea that I was 

 destined to make some important discovery in the branch of industry which I fol 

 lowed. Was this the suggestion of mere vanity ? Be it as it may, the thought 

 took root in my mind, and became for me a fixed idea. With a view to arriving 

 at this wished-for discovery, I studied the works of the best writers on Botany 

 and Agriculture ; I learned Geometry and the art of Drawing, so far as it seemed 

 necessary to me. I followed up all the ramifications of the vegetable kingdom, 

 and applied myself to the study of the external signs by which plants and vege 

 tables of different sorts might be distinguished, and their qualities and product 

 iveness might be known beforehand. 



To do this was to accomplish a good deal, no doubt ; but my mind, still pos 

 sessed by the idea of the great future discovery, was never at rest. I Was, like 

 Ahasuerus, under the hand of the angel ; a voice within was constantly crying 

 out, &quot; Go on ! &quot; and I felt myself impelled forward ; but I had no glimpse of the 

 goal to which I was tending. 



Chance led to the discovery of the famous Tyrian purple ; to chance also is 

 due an observation which was the germ of my discovery, and constitutes the ba 

 sis of my method. When fourteen years of age, I used, according to country cus- 



