20 HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM. 



Bernard, then seventeen years old, who formed 

 the resolution of renouncing the study of mede- 

 cine for that of botany, to which he afterwards 

 gave a new direction. 



It was Antony de Jussieu who, in 1720, en- 

 trusted Declieux, lieutenant of the royal navy, 

 with a young coffee tree, which , transported to 

 Martinique , became the parent of the immense 

 culture of the West-Indies. 



Fagon, who had resigned his botanical chair 

 in 1 683 to Tournefort, had also been replaced 

 in the duties of that of chemistry, by a succession 

 of learned professors; Saint Yon, Louis Lemery, 

 Berger and Geoffroy : the reputation gained by 

 the latter pointing him out to Fagon as a succes- 

 sor worthy of himself , he gave him up the 

 title in 17 12. 



This professor taught chemistry and the ma- 

 teria medica with brillant success. In the chemi- 

 cal and pharmaceutic experiments, he was as- 

 sisted by demonstrators who were generally 

 men of distinguished merit : it was not how- 

 ever until 1 695 , that this place of demonstrator, 

 which had till then been held by commission , 

 was given to a regular professor. 



After Duverney had been appointed professor 

 of anatomy in 1679 , that science continued to 

 be much better taught in the garden than in any 



