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[Dee. 1, 
MEMOIRS OF EMINENT PERSONS. 
Ee 
BIOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT of BRUGUI- 
ERES, read before the PHILOMATHIC 
SOCIETY, on the 30f1h Nivose, 7th 
YEAR (NOV..1799.) By C. CUVIER. 
OHN William Bruguiéres, Doctor of 
ay Medicine of the Faculty of Montpel- 
iier, Member of the Society of Sciences 
of that city, of the Society'of Natural 
Hiftory of Paris, of the Philomathick So- 
Clety, and alfo one of the non-refident Af. 
fociates of the National Inftitute of France, 
was born at Montpellier, about the year 
1750. His father, who is {till alive, and 
practifes as a furgeon, betng defirous to 
bring his fon up to a profcffion that would 
enable him to fupport himfelf comfort- 
ably, made him ftudy medicine, and take 
a degree. 
But young Bruguiéres became paffion- 
ately attached to Natural Hiftory, and 
this was the only fpecies of knowledge 
taught by ‘the Profeflors that he had any 
relifh for. iy 
The fchool of ‘Montpellier was at that 
time the only one in France where Natural 
Hiftory was taught in allits branches, in’ 
a manner correfpondent to the acquire- 
ments of that’ fcience. “The refpectable 
Gouan there propagated, both by his lef- 
fons and his example, the fevere method 
of Linnzus, who found himfelf eclipfled 
at Paris, and elfewhere, by the celebrity 
attached to Baffon’s writings : not that I 
mean to infer, that Buffon had/no claim 
to the charaéter of a correct naturalit; I 
know, on the contrary, that his works are 
even more exact, and pafticularly in every 
thing relative to facts, ‘than thofe of. the 
illuftrious Swede bimfelf : but. fhe public 
did not then poflefs a fuficient degree of 
knowledge to be able to difcriminate and 
dittincuifh his merits. Struck only with 
the magnificence of the drapery, they did not 
perceive that-this great painter had placed 
the moft exaét fymmetry and proportion’ 
beneath it; the fervile crowd of imitators, 
feizing his manner, without being able ta 
fathom his genius, rhought that the hiflory 
of Nature was to he alone ftudied in fie- 
rile declamations relative to her works ; 
they imagined they fhould be able to ac-_ 
quire ufeful difcoveries by means of bril- 
Jiant hypothefes, and obtain real fats 
through the medium of pompous deferip- 
tions, almoft in the fame manner as other 
copyilts, by an error of an oppofite Rind, 
flatter themfelvés that they fhould begome 
, fick-lift of his veflel, in order to 
the rivals of Linnzus by rendering their’ 
works tirefome. 
Bruguiéres always underftood how to ex- 
hibit a jufé medium on this fubject ; he 
well knew how to avoid the profufion of 
ornaments of the one {fchool, and the ma- 
gifterial pretenfions of the other ; he has 
only admitted well-a(certained faéts into 
his works ; but he has adopted all thefe 
without refufing even fuch as did not cor=, 
refpond with his own method. eb 
His father, difcontented at what he con- 
fidered as the want of forefight on the part 
of his fon, thonght proper to fettle him in 
life, as he imagined that this would make 
him attend to what is ufeful, as weil as 
what is agreeable ; he accordingly pro- 
cured a wife for him, although he was. 
ftill very young. But here again he was 
deceived. Brucuiéres was not married more 
than three months, when he efcaped, as it 
were, from the embarraffménts and the 
pleafurés of Hymen, and. came to Paris on 
purpofe to refign himfelf to botany.— 
What was fill more fingular in a newly- 
rnarried man, if the reaction of the love of 
the fciences, which had been compreffed 
by bis father, did not explain the enigma, 
and, in fore meafure, excufe him, he 
embarked a fhort time afterwards for the 
South Seas. Ri a 
This occurred in 1773: Louis XV. was 
ftill alive, and Deboyne, then Minifter of - 
the Mariné, prevailed on the Council to’ 
adopt the plan of an expedition to the 
South Seas, on purpofe to continue the 
difcoveries that had already been made 
there ; it confifted of two veffels, and was. 
entrufted to the command of. Kergueling — 
a captain in the navy. palates . 
Te has been pretended that geographi- 
cal knowledge was merely the apparent 
pretext of this expedition, and that its 
true intention was no other than a com- 
mercial fpeculation between the Minifter, 
and the Cc amander, or that, -at, leaff,. 
they facrificed the general intereft fo their _ 
own particular views. It daes not belorg, 
to us to decide on the juftice of this accu=: 
fation, Kerguelin died only a fhort time 
fince: he pretended to have been the vic-. 
tim. of perfecution ; and he wags even re- 
flored after the revolution, and employed 
as an affifiant in the naval department.— 
We know that on his return be was accul- 
ed by one of his officers of having done 
every thing in his power to augment the, 
have a 
"better 
