THE 



AMERICAN 

 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, &c. 



Art. I. — Historical Notice of the Life and Writings of M. Des- 

 fontaines ; by A. P. DeCandolle, Professor of Natural History 

 in the Academy of Geneva. 



Translated from the Bib. Univ., by J. Griscom. 



Biographical notices, designed to remind us of the services which 

 the inventions and labors of learned men have bestowed upon sci- 

 ence, become materials of literary history, and in this relation they 

 already present much historical interest ; but they assume a far more 

 dignified character when they exhibit to us also the union of the most 

 engaging virtues of private life, — of goodness and modesty the most 

 perfect, — with distinguished talents. They then flimish examples 

 of practical morality, and possess, above all fictitious narratives, de- 

 signed to improve mankind, the immense-advantage of truth. Such 

 is the predicament in which I stand in speaking of M. Desfon- 

 TAiNES one of the most excellent of men, and at the same time one 

 of the most distinguished savans of the present epoch. I fear not to 

 advance this opinion ; I have owed him many obligations ; I have 

 devoted to him the most sincere and profomid attachments. I shall 

 however endeavor to avoid all exaggeration ; I shall not forget that 

 I have assumed the character of an historian, but shall strive to ex- 

 hibit him in all the features of simple tixith. If the most severe im- 

 partiality, and the strictest verity are found to constitute an eulogy, 

 it will surely not be required of me that I should disguise them. 



Rene' Louiche Desfontaines was born in Britanny, at the village 

 of Tremblay, (department of Ille-et-Vilaine) a place already named 

 in the records of science, as the country of the anatomist Bertin. 

 The exact period of his birth j|id of course the precise age to which 

 he attained, has not been deteiTnincd with certainty, as the registers 

 of the commune of Tremblay were destroyed during the storms of 



Vol. XXVII.— No. 2. 2G 



