AUGUSTIN-PYRAMUS DE CANDOLLE. 303 



we made ourselves at home in the house with perfect abandon. M. 

 Berthollet was quite fat and very full-blooded. He feared heat so 

 much that he wore clothes only out of respect to society, and at night 

 he slept entirely uncovered upon his bed. ' What,' said we, * even 

 in winter ? ' ' Oh,' he answered, ' when it is very cold I spread my 

 pocket-handkerchief over my feet.' This man, so high in social 

 rank and scientific celebrity, bore contradiction unusually well, and 

 loved above all things truth. When the first works of Berzelius 

 upon definite proportions became known at Paris, I was very much 

 taken with them, and although they were in direct opposition to the 

 principles of statical chemistry he sustained, I did not fear to tell 

 M. Berthollet the high opinion I had of them. Far from taking 

 offense at this preference, he encouraged me to study the writings 

 of Berzelius. 



" M. de la Place was of quite a different character. He had the 

 dryness of a geometrician and the haughtiness of a parvenu. Over 

 and above these defects of manner, he was a man of honor and 

 worth. . . . He often seconded me, although in truth he thought 

 very little of natural history. In our meetings he often had little 

 quarrels with M. Berthollet, and would think to silence him by say- 

 ing, ' But you see, M. Berthollet, what I say to you is mathematics.' 

 ' Eh, par Dieu, what I say to you is physics,' answered the other, 

 ' and that is quite as good.' . . . Humboldt also came from time to 

 time ; but he added much of life and interest when he appeared. 

 He affected to pass himself as the creator of the science of botanical 

 geography, to which he has only added certain facts, and the ex- 

 aggeration of a true theory so as to render it almost false. He 

 never quite pardoned me for having, in the preface to my memoir 

 on the geography of the plants of France, cited those who before 

 him had occupied themselves with geographical botany, although in 

 this exposition I had, in truth, much amplified his share. 



" Among the other members of the society of whom I have not 

 yet spoken, I would chiefly mention Thenard, who was then com- 

 mencing a career which has since become very brilliant. His activ- 

 ity, his ardor, and his uprightness pleased me very much. ... I 

 could draw, in an anecdote, the contrast between the characters of 

 Thenard and Descotils. ... It was then very difficult to correspond 

 with England, on account of the continental blockade. I happened 

 to be the first to receive, by a letter from Dr. Marcet, the news of 

 Davy's great discovery in decomposing the fixed alkalies. By a 

 happy chance, it reached me on the morning of the day of our meet- 



