4 THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS OF EUROPE 



Great progress was made in the Jardin des Plantes 

 until 1815, when there came a climax in France. 

 Then commenced a series of miseries and an almost 

 incredible history of disaster. Cossacks, Russians, 

 Germans, and Italians filled Paris, and brought ruin 

 and devastation with them ; but, happily, of all the 

 monuments of Paris, the only one which was not in- 

 sulted was the Jardhi des Plantes. The Garden was 

 respected ; it was neutral territory, where all sides 

 came to seek rest from war. 



In 1820 M. Milbert made large collections of natural 

 history specimens and minerals in America for the 

 Jardin des Plantes. In 1829 M. Victor Jacquemont 

 appeared, and made a name for himself in natural 

 history, but died when quite a 5^oung man in the 

 island of Salsette. 



In 1841 the Garden contained a zoological museum, 

 a museum of comparative anatomy, a botanical museum, 

 a geological museum and a museum of minerals. 

 Besides a library containing 28,000 books devoted to 

 travel and to physical and natural sciences, such as 

 natural history, botany, physics, chemistry, mineralogy, 

 comparative anatomy, human anatomy and zoology, 

 there were memoirs of learned societies and a col- 

 lection of paintings on vellum. This library was 

 founded in June, 1793. 



In 1841 M. Geoifroy Saint-Hilaire was Professor of 

 Zoology, M. Brouguiart Professor of Botany, M. Serres 

 Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, and M. de 

 Mirbel Professor of Agriculture. 



During the Siege of Paris in 1870 the Garden 

 suffered terribly. Nearly a hundred shells fell within 



