IV M EMOl K. 



present administration of the Museum, are worthy of imitating the glo- 

 rious examples of their predecessors. I have received from them, as 

 well as from you, all the assistance I could have expected from an en- 

 lightened love for science, rendered more grateful by all the attentions the 

 most generous friendship could suggest. Nothing has been spared that 

 could lead to discoveries, or to the completion of the system of our know- 

 ledge in comparative anatomy. The correspondents of the Museum 

 have imitated the example of its depositaries. Citizen Baillon, in parti- 

 cular, so well known by the valuable observations which he furnished to 

 Buffon, and by those which he continues to make, procured me, with un- 

 exampled zeal and generosity, the rarest birds and fishes. Citizen Hom- 

 bert, of Havre, who has applied, with the greatest success, to the study 

 of Mollusca and Sea Worms, has favoured me with a great number of 

 these animals, the perfect preservation of which rendered their examina- 

 tion exceedingly useful. Citizens Beauvois, Bosc, and Olivier, the two 

 first returned from North America, the third from Egypt and Persia, 

 have kindly communicated to me some of the valuable specimens they 

 have brought to Europe. I have, therefore, no reason to envy the good 

 fortune of Aristotle, when a conqueror, who was the friend of the sciences, 

 made other men subservient to him, and placed millions at his disposal, 

 to enable him to forward the history of Nature. 



" This assertion will not surprise, when it is known that I have been 

 permitted to dissect, not only the animals which have died in the mena- 

 gerie, but also those which have been brouglit, during a great number of 

 years, from all parts of the world, and preserved in spirits. Time only 

 was capable of bringing this collection to its present degree of perfection, 

 and has, in this instance, performed what no other power was capable of 

 accomplishing. 



*' In opening to me your treasures — in admitting me to a share of the 

 labours necessary to their arrangement and their augmentation, you have 

 imposed upon me only one condition : that is, to enable other naturalists to 

 enjoy them, by giving such a description of them a» they merit. You know 

 with what assiduity I endeavour to perform this task, but you also 

 know better than any other what time such a work requires. However 

 rich may be the acquisitions that are made, more will still be desired. 

 Sometimes a new species is discovered, which we wish to compare with 

 those we already know. Sometimes the consideration of an organ induces 

 us to make further attempts to develope its structure. On other occa- 

 sions it is necessary to extend our observations; because something re- 

 mains to be learned respecting the object as a whole, or the relation of its 

 parts. In natural history, in particular, we are always dissatisfied with 

 what we perform, for Nature proves to us, at each step, that she is inex- 

 haustible." 



