i Guettards Early Career 1 3 



the grandson of an apothecary there, he was destined to 

 succeed to the business of compounding and selling drugs. 

 Before he left home for his professional education, he had 

 already developed a passion for natural history pursuits. 

 When still a mere child, he used to accompany his grand- 

 father in his walks, and his greatest happiness was found 

 in collecting plants, asking their names and learning to 

 recognize them, and to distinguish their different parts. 

 Every nook and corner around Etampes became familiar 

 to him, and in later years he loved to revisit, with the eye 

 of a trained naturalist, the scenes which had fascinated his 

 boyhood. In his writings he loses no opportunity of 

 citing his native place for some botanical or geological 

 illustration. Thus, at the very beginning of a long and 

 suggestive memoir on the degradation of mountains, to 

 which further reference will be made in the sequel, his 

 thoughts revert to the haunts of his infancy, and the first 

 illustration he cites of the processes of decay which are 

 discussed in that paper is taken from a picturesque rock 

 overlooking the valley of the Juine, under the shade of 

 which he used to play with his companions. 1 



Having gained the favourable notice of the famous 

 brothers Jussieu, who gave renown to the botanical depart- 

 ment of the Jardin des Plantes, he was allowed by his 

 grandfather to choose a career that would afford scope for 

 his ardour in science. Accordingly he became a doctor 

 in medicine. Eventually he was attached to the suite of 

 the Duke of Orleans, whom he accompanied in his travels, 



Guettard by Condorcet (Oeuvres, edit. 1847, vol. iii. p. 220) and to the 

 personal references which I have met with in Guettard's writings. 



1 Metnoircs sur diff&rentes parties des Sciences et Arts, tome iii. p. 210 

 (1770). 



