TREATISE ON MILCH COWS. 



CHAPTER I. 

 ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY. 



To give the history of my discovery, I must speak of myself. My narrative 

 shall be succinct and short, although my labors have been protracted. But this 

 is a condition attached to discoveiies generally ; we must meditate long upon 

 what an instant has sufficed to reveal or suggest to us. It will be seen that, in 

 my case, difficulties were always renewing. , 



I am the son of a gardener, and I followed for a long time this trade of my 

 forefathers. Nature had given me an observing turn of miod ; I was fond of 

 bringing things together — of instituting comparisons between them — of deducing 

 consequences. At an early period I became possessed by the idea that I was 

 destined to make some important discovery in the branch of industry which I fol- 

 lowed. Was this the suggestion of mere vanity ? Be it as it may, the thought 

 took root in my mind, and became for me a fixed idea. With a view to arriving 

 at this wished-for discovery, I studied the works of the best writers on Botany 

 and Agriculture ; I learned Geometry and the art of Drawing, so far as it seemed 

 necessary to me. I followed up all the ramifications of the vegetable kingdom, 

 and applied myself to the study of the external signs by which plants and vege- 

 tables of different sorts might be distinguished, and their qualities and product- 

 iveness might be known beforehand. 



To do this was to accomplish a good deal, no doubt ; but my mind, still pos- 

 sessed by the idea of the great future discovery, was never at rest. I Was, like 

 Ahasuerus, under the hand of the angel ; a voice within was constantly crying 

 out, " Go on ! " and I felt myself impelled forward ; but I had no glimpse of the 

 goal to which I was tending. 



Chance led to the discovery of the famous Tyrian purple ; to chance also is 

 due an observation which was the germ of my discovery, and constitutes the ba- 

 sis of my method. When fourteen years of age, I used, according to country cus- 



