BARON CUVIER. Ill 



poor, and, in trying to find means for meliorating their 

 condition, he made those beautiful discoveries which have 

 benefited all classes. The labours and character of the 

 oriental traveller, Olivier, are then noticed, and the history of 

 this excellent man furnishes another proof of the immense 

 influence, that a knowledge of medicine will produce among 

 uncivilized people. 



M. Tenon, the surgeon, is afterwards presented to us. 

 His youth was passed in a series of struggles ; his maturi- 

 ty was ]:)eautiful, and he reached the age of ninety-two 

 without intellectual infirmity. 



The eloge of the famous Werner is in every respect in- 

 teresting, for in it we find a brief resume of all that was 

 done ])y this great man, together with the peculiarities which 

 deprived the world of the written results of his labours and 

 extensive knowledge ; he having preferred to trust his re- 

 putation to the justice of his disciples, rather than have re- 

 course to his own pen for transmitting it to posterity. 



The life of Desmarets follows : — Desmarets the antago- 

 nist of Werner, the champion of volcanoes ; he in whose 

 discoveries originated the famous disputes between the Plu- 

 tonians and Neptunians, and which disputes not only placed 

 the whole world between fire and water, but occasioned 

 more animosity than any question which had hitherto agitat- 

 ed the learned world. 



To this second volume are added two eloges read before 

 the Philomathic Society of Paris, the discourse of M. Cuvier 

 on his reception at the Academic Fran^aise, and the reply 

 of the director of that Academy. The first of these two 

 eloges is that of M. Riche, whose life resembles that of a 

 hero of romance, and whose feelings and adventures, per- 

 haps, caused his death at the age of thirty-five. The se- 

 cond is that of M. Bruguiere,"the companion of Olivier, al- 

 ready noticed. The discourse of M. Cuvier assumes a tone 

 in which the nature of his professional studies scarcely ever 

 allowed him to indulge, but in which we trace the same per- 

 fection as elsewhere. It is full of classical and elegant al- 

 lusions ; it is the production of a man of letters, and shows 

 how admirable is the combination when science and litera- 

 ture occupy the same mind. Tn the reply of the Count de 



