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ministrations of the countries he visited, suggesting at the same time 

 measures for their amelioration and for the correction of existing 

 abuses. He had projected a great work on the agricultural state of 

 the empire, and had even executed considerable portions of it, com- 

 prehending the French Flora arranged according to modern views 

 of classification, when the political events of 1814 put an entire stop 

 to the work. 



In 1807 he was appointed Professor of Medicine at Montpellier ; 

 and in 1810, a chair of Botany was instituted in the same Academy, 

 which he was invited to occupy. Under his superintendence, the 

 Botanical Garden of that city was more than doubled in extent, and 

 the study of Botany assumed a degree of importance it had never 

 before possessed. De Candolle quitted Montpellier in 1816, very 

 much to the regret of the students and of his colleagues, who em- 

 ployed every means in their power to induce him to remain among 

 them : but his country had been restored to liberty, and he was firm 

 in his determination to fix himself in his native city, and devote to 

 its services the remainder of his days. 



Soon after his return to Geneva he was appointed to the chair of 

 Natural History, an office which had been created expressly that he 

 might occupy it. Among the first of the public benefits which he 

 conferred upon his countrymen was the establishment of a Botanic 

 Garden. The government of Geneva willingly lent their aid in form- 

 ing so laudable an institution, in which he was also assisted by a great 

 number of voluntary subscribers. The enthusiasm which he in- 

 spired for his favourite science was remarkably displayed on one 

 particular occasion, when, being desirous of procuring for Geneva a 

 copy of a Flora of Mexico which had been deposited with him for a 

 few days, an appeal which he made to the public was responded to 

 with such alacrity, that in the course of eight days, one thousand 

 drawings had been finished by amateurs, who volunteered their ser- 

 vices on the occasion. 



The activity and powers of De Candolle's mind were displayed in 

 a multitude of objects of public utility, the furtherance of which 

 ever called forth in him the most lively interest ; — whether it was 

 the improvement of agriculture, the cultivation of the fine arts, the 

 advancement of public instruction, the diffusion of education, or the 

 amelioration of the legislative code. Feeling deeply of what vast 

 importance to the welfare of mankind it is that sound principles of 

 political economy should be extensively promulgated and well un- 

 derstood by all ranks of men, De Candolle never failed to develope 

 and enforce those principles in his lectures and popular discourses, 

 as well as in his official agricultural reports. On these subjects, and 

 especially with respect to the immense advantages which would ac- 

 crue to the community from the unrestricted freedom of commerce, 

 his views were those of the most enlightened policy, and exhibited a 

 sagacity in advance of the times in which he lived. 



As a lecturer, he possessed in an eminent degree the power of im- 

 parting to his auditors the enthusiasm which glowed within his own 

 breast for the pursuits of natural history. Complete master of the 



