76 "" MEMOIRS OF 



brain and its coverings; the nerves which proceed 

 from it ; the different parts of the eye, and its 

 consequent vision ; the muscles wliich move the 

 eye; the eyelids; the ear, and its complicated 

 parts ; the muscles and nerves belonging to it ; 

 the movements of the lower jaw; the teeth in all 

 their stages ; the salivary glands ; the bones of 

 the tongue, its muscles, and the tongue itself, 

 &c. What a task thus to carry us through all 

 creation ! And yet the noble author considered 

 this merely as a foundation for one of still 

 greater magnitude, the preparations for whicli 

 he had been carrying on during the whole of his 

 active life, and the results of which preparations 

 were shortly to have been given to us, had not 

 death suddenly arrested his progress — had not 

 the inscrutable will of the Almighty suddenly 

 closed upon us the way which this great genius 

 had opened to our progress. 



To the above work was awarded one of the 

 " prix decennaux," instituted by Napoleon in 

 1810, an account of wliich may be acceptable to 

 the English reader. Wishing at that time to 

 divert the public attention from passing events 

 (the Spanish campaign, &c.), the Emperor issuetl 

 a decree, stating, that as he was desirous of re- 

 warding and encouraging every species of study 



