214 The Life and Writings of M. Disfontames. 



the hope that an operation for cataract might one day restore him to 

 sight ; — he sometimes yielded to this hope ; but again, remembering 

 that the same illusion had been held up to his colleague Lamarck, 

 he smiled at his own credulity. He still preserved however his mild 

 and benevolent cheerfulness of temper and clearness of intellect, — 

 he loved to converse on botany and to point out observations which 

 he thought ought to be made ; he was led into the conservatories, 

 and was gratified in distinguishing the plants by feeling. He dicta- 

 ted useflal notes relative to the Colonization of Algiers, a subject on 

 which he was often consulted by the government. 



In the mean time a violent catarrh, to which he was periodically 

 subject, began to manifest itself with a force which his constitution 

 seemed inadequate to resist. In anticipating the event one subject 

 alone rendered him unhappy. He was leaving his daughter, still 

 young, without protection in life. Happily, his nephew, to whom 

 he had acted the part of a father, and who then held a station among 

 the most distinguished civil engineers of the government, had been 

 cherishing, for a long time, the desire of being united to his cousin. 

 Informed of this desire, Desfontaines had the satisfaction, on his 

 death bed, to join the two individuals whom he loved the most, — he 

 gave a protector to his daughter, who still preserved the name which 

 had received so much honor from the father. He also learned that 

 the government had taken care to provide after his demise for the 

 support of his wife. Thus encouraged with respect to those the most 

 dear to him, he awaited death, in the midst, indeed of great bodily 

 suffering, but with a serenity, a calmness, and brightness of mind 

 which cannot be surpassed. His goodness had assumed a more 

 touching character, and at his bed side, one of those who was then 

 bestowing upon him his final and most attentive cares, (A. de Jus- 

 sieu) wrote me I have learned to love him still more. He recalled 

 to memory all the classic lines that were applicable to his situation ; 

 he recollected the slightest wrongs that he thought he had commit- 

 ted, in order to express his regrets ; he testified his fi-iendship for his 

 friends who were present, and sent tender messages to those who 

 were absent. He yielded his last breath the 16th of November, 

 1833, aged about 81 5^ears. 



His death spread a general grief throughout the Museum of Nat- 

 ural History, all of whose mhabitants had been long devoted to him 

 by sentiments of attachment and veneration. Just and feeling tes- 

 timonials were borne to him at the grave, by his colleagues. His 



