THIRD PERIOD. 125 



and exempt from the systematic absurdities that 

 have disgraced the theory of the earth. 



M. Faujas de St. Fond first occupied the chair 

 of geology in the Museum. If the science, not- 

 withstanding the facts with which he had en- 

 riched it, was not sufficiently advanced for the 

 establishment of positive laws, he at least had the 

 merit of rendering it popular, and of contribut- 

 ing to its progress since the beginning of the 

 century. The impaired state of his health dur- 

 ing the last years of his life, obliged him to reside 

 chiefly in the country, though attached to Paris 

 by the duties of his office and the friendship of 

 his colleagues: he terminated his career at his 

 estate of St. Fond, near Montelimar, the iSth July 

 1819, at the age of seventy-eight. 



M. Cor die r, an inspector of the mines, and the 

 pupil and travelling companion of Dolomieu, 

 was named by the professors of the Museum and 

 by the academy of sciences to succeed M. Faujas, 

 and appointed by an ordinance of the i3th of 

 September 18 19. At his entrance into the garden 

 he lost no time in reorganising the cabinet of 

 geology, by distributing the rocks into three 

 series, according to their nature, their position, 

 and their locality. In his lectures he contents 

 himself with exposing the actual state of the 

 globe, by a connected view of facts ascertained 



