XI 



It would be difficult to imagine a happier complement to a classical 

 education than the lessons taught at every step in this delightful 

 country. Nor were they lost upon young Dumas, who at fourteen 

 years of age, in addition to his rare attainments in classical literature, 

 had acquired a rudimentary knowledge of the several natural sciences. 

 Having made up his mind to enter the navy, he might at once have 

 presented himself for examination, had it not been for an insufficient 

 acquaintance with some branches of mathematics, in which, owing to 

 the limited instruction given at the college, his information had 

 hitherto remained of a very elementary character. 



While Dumas was still preparing for his naval examination, the 

 political events of 1814-15 obliged his family to renounce this project 

 and to select a career for the youth which would entail less sacrifice. 



Dumas accordingly entered as apprentice at an apothecary's in 

 Alais. This position, in which he pursued his first practical studies, 

 did not afford much opportunity for scientific progress, and the young 

 man became soon impressed with a strong desire to give up this place 

 and to quit his native town. This feeling, indeed, became so intense 

 that his parents, moved by his evident distress, thought it best to 

 accede to his wishes. 



Soon after, in 1816, Dumas travelled on foot from Alais to Geneva, 

 where he found everything to expand his ideas, to stimulate his 

 emulation, and thus to prepare him for his future career. There 

 were lectures on botany by M. de Candolle, on physics by M. Pictet, 

 and on chemistry by M. Gaspard de la Rive. He had, besides, the 

 siaperintendence of a tolerably large laboratory, belonging to the 

 pharmacy of Le Royer, and formerly used for the courses of applied 

 chemistry given by M. Tingry. 



The pharmaceutical students, who frequently united in botanical 

 excursions during the summer, started the idea of winter meetings 

 for scientific studies. Seeing that Dumas had a laboratory at his 

 disposal, it was suggested that he should give them a course of 

 experimental chemistry. This was his debut in the professorial 

 career. 



Meanwhile Dumas had become introduced to Gaspard de la Rive, 

 to Theodore de Saussure, and to De Candolle, and each of these in 

 his way began to take a warm and lasting interest in him ; they 

 encouraged his studies, and assisted him to the best of their powers 

 in his pursuits. It was most likely at the instigation of his new 

 friends that Dumas, reviving his early naval predilections, began 

 seriously to think of, and to prepare for, an exploring expedition to 

 some distant part of the world. A monograph on the Gentianeae, 

 chiefly written for the purpose of becoming familiar with the language 

 and the ideas of botanical science, was a fruit of these aspirations. 



But this was not to be his mission. Biot's great treatise, which for 



c 2 



