NATURAL HISTORY OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENT. 399 



FIG. 182. BUFFON. 



called the Jardin des Plantes), on his death-bed named Buffon as his 

 fittest successor, and the person who better than any other could 

 rightly direct that national establishment. Buffon was accordingly 

 appointed in 1739, and profited by the opportunities which were 

 placed within his reach for the prosecution of the study of natural 

 history, to which he had manifested the most devoted predilection. 

 Buffon held this appointment until his death, and continued during 

 the whole period of half a century to occupy himself with the study of 

 natural history and the composition of the voluminous work for which 

 he is so famous, " LHistoire Naturelle" This great work, which fills 

 thirty-six octavo volumes, was intended to cover the whole field of 

 natural history by giving a complete description of animate and inani- 

 mate nature. Though Buffon possessed great industry, and laboured 

 at his task for fifty years, only a portion of this great scheme was 

 completed. The work actually produced remains, however, a monu- 

 ment of the genius and perseverance of its author. It is not a series 

 of systematic treatises containing in technical language all scientific 



