BARON CUVIER. 105 



nated his whole life, the improper 'control of which had 

 jeen the foundation of all his errors. He caused the Gospel 

 ,o be read by him, and thanked God for having allowed 

 him to lead a useful life, and granted him a peaceful death. 

 Among the list of his principal blessings, he ranked that of 

 having personally known almost all his contemporaries. ' I 

 am going to sleep, as you do,' said he to his grandchildren, 

 who were brought to him, ' but we shall wake again toge- 

 ther, and, I hope, to eternal happiness ;' thus evincing in 

 what belief he died. These were his last words ; such was 

 the end of that man, whom his enemies accused of wishing 

 to overthrow all morality and religion, and, nevertheless, 

 whose greatest error was to mistake his vocation, and to at- 

 tach too much importance to his individual sentiments, in 

 matters where the most important of all feelings ought to be 

 the love of peace." 



The subject of the succeeding eloge, M. Gels, was a prac- 

 tical botanist and scientific agriculturist, to whom Paris owes 

 the celebrated garden which bears his name : from him ema- 

 nated some excellent laws on agricultural interests. 



No one but a profound naturalist could have appreciated 

 the merits of M. Adanson ; and no one but an impartial and 

 penetrating biographer could have separated his great and 

 rare perfections, from that peculiarity and exaggeration of 

 ideas which led him into error. This traveller visited Se- 

 negal, because it is the most difficult of access, the most un- 

 healthy, and, in all respects, the most dangerous of all the 

 French colonies, and consequently, was the least known to 

 naturalists ; the continent of Africa was therefore the scene 

 of his discoveries, and to him we owe our perfect knowledge 

 of that giant of the vegetable world, the Baobab, or, in pro- 

 per terms, the Adansonia digitata. 



M. Bronssonet, Professor of Botany to the School of Me- 

 dicine at Montpelier, was called to the Institute by the sec- 

 tion of zoology and anatomy, and after publishing several 

 works on zoology, and passing a life of dangers and un- 

 heard-of escapes, died of a coup de soleil. 



M. Lassus was a surgeon, and though generally skilful 

 in his profession, was so unfortunate as to bleed a royal 

 patient twice without success. The outcry was universal, 

 il Une princesse piquee deux fois, et qui n'a pas saigne 



