262 LAVOISIER. 



scientific researches, devoted much of his attention, as 

 I have already related. From his numerous observa- 

 tions, both on the coast and on the Paris basin, M. Monge 

 drew the conclusion that the earth was originally covered 

 with vegetables long before any animals were upon its 

 surface. The subsequent inquiries, we may say dis- 

 coveries, of Cuvier and his successors, deprive these com- 

 paratively imperfect attempts in geological science of 

 nearly their whole interest. 



In the course of the illustrious career which we have 

 been surveying, its brightness occasionally dimmed with 

 the spots which a regard for the truth of history over- 

 coming our regard for his fame made it a duty to mark, 

 this great man occasionally gave his aid to the adminis- 

 tration of public affairs, not as a politician, for from that 

 craft he ever kept aloof, but when called in by the 

 government to its assistance. In 1776 M. Turgot, then 

 minister, requested him to superintend the manufacture 

 of gunpowder; and the result of his labours was both 

 the increase by nearly a fourth in the explosive force of 

 the compound, and, what the enlightened statesman who 

 employed him valued still more, the suppression of the 

 vexatious regulations for collecting saltpetre from private 

 buildings : an operation of wise as well as humane legis- 

 lation, by which the produce of that necessary article 

 was increased fourfold. When the National Assembly, 

 in 1791, appointed a committee to improve the system 

 of taxation, he was again consulted, and he drew up a 

 treatise, entitled 'Richesse Territoriale de la France,' 

 which contained the fullest account yet given of the pro- 

 duction and consumption of the country, and was by far 

 the most valuable report ever presented to the legisla- 

 ture. Being appointed one of the Commissioners of the 



