g8 HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM. 



fering from those that now inhabit the earth in 

 proportion to the remoteness of the periods at 

 which they lived. 



After this publication , M. Cuvier gave his col- 

 lection , the more valuable because singular in its 

 kind, to the Museum, accepting in exchange only 

 the duplicates of books on natural history in the 

 library. This collection, with that of fishes from 

 mount Bolca, fills one of the saloons of the cabinet. 



In 1802, the professors had determined on fit- 

 ting up the first floor of Leger's house for the bo- 

 tanical collection, but the arrangements were 

 not completed till 1807. In the interval the pro- 

 fessors of botany assembled and examined all 

 that the museum possessed in this kind, and in 

 1808 it was disposed in its present order. 



The herbarium was formerly contained in 

 boxes or portfolios, and the collection of fruits 

 grains, gums etc., was bottled up along with 

 Geoffroy's ancient drugs: the whole occupied 

 the room now appropriated to the fishes. M. de 

 Lamarck, who before the new organisation 

 was charged with the herbarium, had several 

 times proposed reducing it to order, but he could 

 not obtain a suitable place for its reception. The 

 different herbariums were not classed, nor even 

 kept together ; that of Commerson had been de- 

 posited at M, de Jussieu's ; that of Dombey was 



