iG HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM. 



successor worthy of himself, called from a remote 

 part of France, Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, who 

 was then only twenty six years of age, but who 

 already announced what he was one day to be- 

 come, to whom he yielded the chair of botany in 

 1 683. Ten years after, Fagon became first phy- 

 sician. This place gave him the intendance of 

 the garden, and from the singular respect in which 

 he was held, the title of superintendant was rees- 

 tablished in his favour. 



From the same cause he was enabled to obtain 

 the patronage of government for the establish- 

 ment to which he was so much attached , and du- 

 ring the fifteen years it was under his direction, 

 every thing resumed new life. This increasing 

 prosperity might have gone on in uninterrupted 

 progression if Fagon, reflecting that it was 

 due to his own zeal and merit , and that his suc- 

 cessors might not be animated by the same 

 views , had taken advantage of his influence to 

 procure a settled administration , independant of 

 the caprices of a superior. 



We have already mentioned that Duverney 

 filled the chair of anatomy, and Tournefort that 

 of botany : the names of these two professors shed 

 a lustre over the establishment. Tournefort pre- 

 vious to his appointment enjoyed a brilliant re- 

 putation, which was heightened in 1693, by the 



