BARON CUVIER. 117 



seeking the causes of pestilence; and the means of preven- 

 tion ; making roads, fixing conductors for lightning, and 

 aiding the state hy his counsels. France employed him in 

 the departments beyond the Alps, as director of bridges and 

 highways ; and in this capacity he caused new roads to be 

 made in every direction, bridges to be thrown over fearful 

 torrents, and two magnificent military causeways, which, 

 raised along precipitous crests, supported by arches of prodi- 

 gious elevation, and occasionally piercing the bosom of these 

 rugged mountains, have made an agreeable walk of that 

 which was formerly frightful to the imagination. 



To these two eloges succeed two funeral discourses ; one 

 delivered at the interment of M. Van Spaendonck, the pro- 

 fessor of botanical drawings at the Jardin des Plantes, an 

 artist whose productions attained the highest perfection: and 

 the other at the grave of the great astronomer, M. Delambre. 

 The latter was a personal friend of M. Cuvier's ; and in this 

 discourse which was not of sufficient extent to admit of an 

 enumeration of his labours, his excellent character as a man 

 received its just tribute from the lips of his colleague. 



The volume is closed by two of those admirable reports^ 

 in wdiich M. Cuvier always displayed his genius and ac- 

 quirements in their full strength. In the first, which is on 

 the progress of natural history between the maritime peace 

 and the year 1824, will be found an account of the impor- 

 tant travels of that period. The second treats of the prin- 

 cipal changes which chemical theories have undergone, and 

 of the new services rendered by this science to society at 

 large, and was read at a general meeting of the four acade- 

 mies, in 1820. 



The forthcoming volume of these eloges will, if nothing 

 unforeseen should occur, be shortly published, and will con- 

 tain those of M. Ramond, the Pyrennean traveller; M. 

 Bosc, the successor of M. Thouin ; Sir Humphrey Davy, M. 

 Vauquelin, and M. Lamark; some funeral orations ; M. de 

 Lamartine's discourse on his reception as a member of the 

 Institute, with M. Cuvier's reply; and a new edition of the 

 Prix de Verlu. These have all been read in public ; but of 

 course, when printed, a freer scope is given to detail; for no 

 one knew better than M. Cuvier how to fascinate a nume- 

 rous audience, by a choice of what was generally interesting, 



