MEMOIR OF PALLAS. 19 
me to make his Eloge a kind of ‘ table of contents,’ 
for which I must crave the indulgence of my audi- 
tory.”* 
This eminent naturalist, Perer Simon Patwas, 
was born in Berlin, September 22d, in the year 
1741. His father, Simon Pallas, a native of Jo- 
hannisburg in Prussia, was surgeon-major in the 
regiment of Doenhof, and in 1741 was appointed 
professor of surgery at Berlin, and chief surgeon of 
the public hospital of that city. His mother, Susan 
Leonard, was of French extraction, being born in 
the colony of French emigrants which had for some 
time been established in the Prussian metropolis. 
Young Pallas received the early part of his edu- 
cation at home from private tutors, and made most 
satisfactory progress in his studies. His father, 
who intended him to follow his own profession, 
entertained the judicious purpose of familiarizing 
him, when still almost a child, with many lan- 
guages; and the boy made such proficiency, that 
he could soon write almost equally well in Latin 
and French, in English and German. The manifold 
advantages accruing from this accomplishment, usu- 
ally so easily acquired in youth, were very apparent 
* See Recueil des Eloges Hist. par M. le Chev. Cuvier, t. ii. 
109.—Of course we shall freely avail ourselves of this masterly 
eloge, so far as it goes. The Baron states he was much as- 
sisted by L’Essai Biographique sur Pallas, which was read by 
M. Rudolphi to the Academy of Berlin in 1812. This we 
have not seen, 
