206 MEMOIRS OF 



quantities. Chrome, discovered by one of our 

 chemists, is also the useful product of one of our 

 mines. Zinc and tin have already been extracted 

 from the mines on the coast of Britany. Alum 

 and vitriol, formerly almost unknown in France, 

 are collected in abundance. An immense mass 

 of rock salt has just been discovered in Lorraine ; 

 and all promises that these new creations will 

 not stop here. Doubtless, it is not to a single 

 man, nor to the appointment of a single profes- 

 sorship, that all this may be attributed ; but it is 

 not the less true, that this one man, this one pro- 

 fessorship, has been the primary cause of these 

 advantages." 



The name of M. Haiiy, the geologist, the 

 mineralogist, the founder of crystallography, 

 forms a sort of oracle in the learned world, and 

 I have a peculiar pleasure in dwelling on this 

 ^loge, because it is one of the most admirable of 

 all, and does honour to M. Cuvier's heart, show- 

 ing how entirely he was independent of selfish 

 feelings, how truly just he could be, even to 

 those who had opposed him with hostile senti- 

 ments. The extraordinary man here spoken of 

 commenced the world as a chorister, and studied 

 natural philosophy and botany as amusements. 

 These tastes led him frequently to the Jardin des 



