616 Life of Count Rumford. 



9th of January, 1815.* This tribute is introduced by a 

 similar commemoration of Mons. A. A. Parmentier, 

 who had died less than a year before Rumford. The 

 key-note to the Eloge is given in the opening ^sentence. 

 Cuvier reminds his audience that the sciences had 

 reached a point at which they excited less amazement 

 by the great enterprises they engage and the shining 

 truths they disclose, than by the immense advantages 

 which their applied uses daily insure to society. Hun- 

 ger and cold are the two great foes of our race, and, to 

 meet them, all our skill and art are most resolutely 

 directed, in palaces and in hovels. Chemistry has here 

 its realm of power, and the dispensation of blessings. 

 Its conquests cost not a drop of blood, and repair the 

 waste of all other conquests. 



After an interesting and eloquent sketch of the life 

 and beneficent labors of M. Parmentier, especially in 

 the field of agricultural chemistry, and in the introduc- 

 tion of the common use of the potato into France, 

 Cuvier devotes a more elaborate and extended treatment 

 to his friend Rumford. The errors the same that 

 are found in most of the biographical sketches which 

 Cuvier connects with the early years of his subject, 

 have been referred to on previous pages. His career 

 in Bavaria, with its noble services and its high honors, 

 is admirably presented, while the eulogist vindicates the 

 Count from the charge of being dazzled by, or too 

 fond of, titles and distinctions. Cuvier does justice to 

 Rumford's genius in science, and traces his devoted and 

 eminently successful labors for ends 'of public utility 

 and benevolence. Especial reference is then made to 



* Recueil des Eloges Historiques lus dans les Stances Publiques de 1'Institut de 

 France. Par G. Cuvier. Tome deuxieme. Paris, 1861. 



