MEMOIR OF PALLAS. 19 



me to make his Eloge a kind of ' table of contents,' 

 for which I must crave the indulgence of my audi- 

 tory/'* 



This eminent naturalist, Peter Simon Pallas, 

 was bom in Berlin, September 22d, in the year 

 1741. His father, Simon Pallas, a native of Jo- 

 hannisburg in Prussia, was surgeon-major in the 

 regiment of Doenhof, and in 1741 was appointed 

 professor of surgery at Berlin, and chief surgeon of 

 the public hospital of that city. His mother, Susan 

 Leonard, was of French extraction, being bom in 

 the colony of French emigrants which had for some 

 time been established in the Prussian metropolis. 



Young Pallas received the early part of his edu- 

 cation at home from private tutors, and made most 

 satisfactory progress in his studies. His father, 

 who intended him to follow his own profession, 

 entertained the judicious purpose of familiarizing 

 him, when still almost a child, with many lan- 

 guages ; and the boy made such proficiency, that 

 he could soon write almost equally well in Latin 

 and French, in English and German. The manifold 

 advantages accming from this accomplishment, usu- 

 ally so easily acquired in youth, were very apparent 



* See Recueil des Eloges Hist, par M. le Chev. Cuvier, t. ii. 

 109. — Of course we shall freely avail ourselves of this masterly 

 eloge, so far as it goes. The Baron states he was much as- 

 sisted by VEssai Biographtque sur Pallas^ which was read by 

 M. Rudolphi to the Academy of Berlin in 1812. This we 

 have not seen. 



