38 MEMOIR OF 



which has been published, we find allusion made to 

 the point in the following terms, which, as it clearly 

 expresses the prevailing opinion, we the more willingly 

 quote. " Cuvier, in a notice of Aldrovandijs life, 

 regards this circumstance as doubtful ; imagining 

 it improbable that the Senate of Bologna, to whom 

 he bequeathed his Museum and Manuscripts, and 

 who laid out large sums after his death in com- 

 pleting the publication of his works, would have 

 left him destitute during his life. This, however, 

 is mere conjecture ; and there is too much reason to 

 fear that, like many other eminent men, he was 

 abandoned to struggle with misfortune, and not ad- 

 vanced to honour and estimation, until after his 

 career was finished, when they could be of no use 

 to him." We are glad for the sake of our hero, 

 and of humanity, that our limited investigation in- 

 duces us to believe, that Cuvier's conjecture is better 

 founded than the fear here so feelingly expressed. 



We may first remark, that the doubt expressed 

 concerning the truth of the popular belief, did not 

 originate with Baron Cuvier in the nineteenth cen- 

 tury, but was expressed by Baron Haller in tho 

 eighteenth ; his words are explicit, " Nostro cevo 

 negatur"* " It is now denied." But still there in- 

 tervened betw r een the times of the great Physiologist 

 and our Naturalist the best part of two centuries. 

 During the intermediate space, we have been unable 

 to obtain any information either with regard to the 



Bib. Anat. t. ij. 



