M. FRANCOIS PERON. 31 



to Government. This commission was composed 

 of Messrs Laplace, Bougainville, Fleurieu, Lace- 

 pede, and Cuvier; and their report, drawn up by 

 Baron Cuvier, bore that the collection contained 

 more than 100,000 specimens of animals, amongst 

 which were many new genera ; that the number tf 

 new species was more than 2500, and that Peron 

 and Lesueur alone, had made us acquainted with 

 more animals than the whole of the travelling Natu- 

 ralists of modern times ; and, finally, that the de- 

 scriptions of Peron, prepared upon a uniform plan, 

 embracing all the details of the external organiza- 

 tion, establishing their characters, in a positive 

 manner, exhibiting their habits, and. the economic 

 uses to which they might be applied, would survive 

 the revolutions of arrangements and systems. 



Although Peron was now chiefly occupied with 

 his great work, the account of the voyage, yet he 

 deemed it expedient to detach from it a variety of 

 separate memoirs, which he read to the Institute , 

 the Museum, and La Societe de la Medicine. 

 Among these was the memoir on the genus Pyro- 

 soma, that Zoophite so pre-eminently phosphores- 

 cent, of which we have already spoken ; another 

 was on the temperature of the sea ; another on the 

 petrified Zoophites which were found in the moun- 

 tains of Timor ; and others on the dysentery of 

 hot climates ; on the Betel ; on preserving the 

 health of seamen ; on the localities of Seals ; and 

 on the strength of savages when compared with 

 civilized men; lastly, he undertook a complete hi* 



