1808.] 
non, with the title of royal naturalist, 
and soon after admitted a meinber of the 
Academy of Sciences, in the third class, 
as adjunct botanist; and the History of 
the Academy bears testimony to the 
zealous activity with which he contri- 
buted towards the promotion of the sci- 
euce. 
When he was invited, in 1760, by the 
Emperor to Louvain, for the purpose of 
erecting an Academy of Natural History, 
according to his plan, he was at the same 
time honoured by a letter from Linneus, 
offering him a place in the academy of 
Upsal, which he declined. In the fol- 
lowing year a proposal of quite a different 
nature came from England, which, as 
tending to the disadvantage of his coun- 
try, he rejected with indignation. After 
the capture of Senegal, Lord North be- 
ing deeply interested in the English Afri- 
can Company, sent Mr. Cumming, who, 
next to his lordship, had the yreatest 
share in it, to Adanson, for the purpose of 
obtaining from him, if not the originals, 
at least copies of his papers on the pro- 
ductions and trade of that country. 
In 1762, by desire of M. Choiseul, he 
employed his talents for the benefit of his 
country, by drawing up a plan for the 
new regulation of the colonies of Cay- 
enne and Guayana, and another for Go- 
ree, for which important services, how- 
ever, he received no reward. 
In 1766, very advantageous offers were 
made to him by the Empress of Russia, 
to induce him to settle. at Petersburg as 
member of the academy, and professor of 
natural history: but these oifers, as well 
as @ prior invitation of the same kind 
from the King of Spain, were declined. 
In 1767, he undertook a journey, at 
his own expence, to Normandy and Brit- 
tany, the object of which'was the inves- 
tigation of the natural history ef these 
provinces. He continued to pursue his 
favourite studies with undisturbed tran- 
guility, till, in the year 1775, he had the 
mortification of seeing the reversion of 
Buffon’s place given to M. de Angivillier, 
in preference to himself, whose seventeen 
years services obtained only a pitiful pen- 
sion of two thousand livres. This disap- 
pointment was the more sensibly felt by 
Adanson, as he believed that the, posses- 
sion of that-place would have greatly faci- 
-itated the publishing of.an Encyclopedia 
of Natural History, in one hundred and 
twenty volumes, and with seventy-five 
thousand figures, in the compiling of which 
he was then engaged. On. the -15th of 
February, 1775, he laid before the Aca> 
Montuiy Mac., No, 167. 
Memoirs of Michel Adanson. 
Al 
demy the plan of this work, of which 
the committee appointed to examine it, 
gave avery favourable report. He con- 
tinued to flatter himself with the hope of 
seeing this plan put in execution, till the 
revolution entirely annihilated it. In 
1779, he undertook a journey to the high= 
est mountains of Europe, whence he re- 
turned with more than twenty thousand 
specimens of minerals, and drawings of 
more than twelve hundred leagues of 
mountainous tracts. At a later period, 
though already oppressed with che infir- 
mities of old age, he wished to accom=- 
pany Peyrouse in his voyage round the 
world; but his offer was not accepted. 
Being in possession of one of the rich- 
est cabinets, which contained at least 
sixty-five thousand species belonging to 
the three kingdoms, of. nature, he had 
applied for a place in the Louvre, suffi- 
cient to contain these treasures, consist- 
ing of the specimens themselves, of plates 
and descriptions; but instead of it, ob- 
tained only an additional pension of 
eighteen hundred livres. Nor did he 
succeed to the full pension of the acade- 
my till the death of Fougeroux, in 1789. 
At the beginning of the revolution, his 
experimental garden, in which he culti- 
vated one hundred and thirty species 
of mulberry-trees, was laid waste by the 
barbarous plunderers. Still more, how- 
ever, was he grieved at the total extinc- 
, tion of the hope he had entertained of 
collecting his numerous observations, and 
the results of so much labour, in the 
above-mentioned Encyclopedia. 
His income was now so much reduced, 
‘that, for want of fuel and candle, he was 
obliged to suspend his studies during the 
long nights of winter. Some relief was 
afforded him, however, by the Minister 
Benezech ; and still more—as much, in- 
deed as in these unhappy times could be 
done—by Benezech’s successor, Francois 
de Neufchateaux, whose care for him 
did not cease when he no longer held the 
offices of minister. Adanson, however, 
was now obliged to live without his ac- 
customed comforts in a small house, or 
rather hut, situated in Chantereyne-. 
street, which could not fail to prove 
very prejudicial to an old man who, by. 
his long residence in a hot climate, had. 
become extremely sensible to the effects 
-of cold and moisture, and who was af- 
flicted with the rheumatism. Here he 
passed almost the whole day in a little 
spot where he cultivated plants, sitting 
cross-leggéd, for the purpose of pursuing 
his observations on these plants and some 
G . frogs 3 
