5JO8 TRAVELS THROUGH 



gave advice of their arrival. Befides, there ap- 

 peared not in thefe chefts any accounts concern- 

 ing Natural Hiftory, except fome notes of the 

 plants which he had fent before ; with fome fine 

 memoirs on the antiquities of the countries in which 

 he travelled, and in which he was very converfant. 

 This unhappy man was born at Padua. He 

 had an uncommon inclination to Natural Hiftory. 

 Fired by the adtivity of his genius and the quick- 

 nefs of his underftanding, poflefied of an extenfive 

 knowledge of the fea-prod actions, and blefTed with 

 a good conftitution, he was prompted in the bloom 

 of life to fo hazardous an undertaking. His 

 qualities procured to him, firft, the place of Bo- 

 tanic Profefibr at Turin, and afterwards the com- 

 miflion of the literary expedition, which, had he 

 lived, would have undoubtedly proved a great ad- 

 vantage to fcience. He was not eminent in botany, 

 at leaft when firft he was denominated Profefibr of 

 botany. This appears by many wrong denomina- 

 tions given by him to the coloured drawings after 

 living plants, which are kept in the academical 

 library, and are Hill augmenting. But it is equally 

 true, that afterwards he bent with great appli- 

 cation to this part of fcience. It would be un- 

 fair to expect that any man mould have an equal 

 knowledge in every part of the extenfive fcience 

 of nature, which is rather impoffible. The friends 

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