- 
1810.] 
were before unknown), accompanied by 
as many plates, This was_a fine speci- 
men of an linportant work; and-it will 
always be regretted, that notwithstanding 
the preparations which had been made: 
for the engravings, the author did not carry 
it forward. 
Broussonnet returned from London, 
preceded by the reputation of bis ‘book, 
decorated with the title of Fellow of the 
Royal Society, and counting among his 
friends the younger Linneus, Dr, Solan- 
der, Sparman, ent P, Scarpa, and 
several other naturalists of distinction. 
An unreserved conformity to the plan 
and systems of Linneus, would have been 
of itself no recommendation in the eyes 
of those who then possessed the most 
influence in France; and particularly of 
the respectable Daubent on, who enjoyed 
much eredit both with the academy and 
the minister: but the amiabie character, 
the miid and engaging manners, and the 
modest and dithdent tone, of Broussonnet, 
atoned for his scientific creed; and his 
most zealous protector, was the man 
. whose ideas_on that subject were in the 
greatest opposition to his own. Thus 
Daubenton appointed him his substitute 
in the college of France, and his associate 
at the veterinary school; and was the 
principal means of procuring his recep- 
tion at so early an age into the academy : 
a conduct which was equally bonourable 
to both. Hewasnot elected academician 
however without a competition which 
continued for six months; and during 
that period he presented a series of me- 
moirs, of such merit as could not have 
failed of ensuring his success, even if he 
had not been assisted by any patronage. 
Among these was the plan of his im- 
tended great work on ichthyuology. His 
arrangement was nearly the same as 
that of Linneus; but he enumerated 
1260 species, though Linneus had ther 
only 460. As specimens of his manner 
of description, he gave a memoir on the 
sea-wolf (anurrhichas lupus), and another 
on the scomber gladius. He wrote after- 
ward: on the spermatic vessels of fishes; 
and shewed that scales are possessed by 
several animals of this class, which are 
commonly thought to be destitute of 
them, But the article most likely to: 
strike such men of learning as were not 
professed naturalists, was his Comparison 
of the Motions of Plants with those of 
Animals, In this he gave the first com- 
plete description of the vegetable which 
approaches nearest to the appearance of 
having something voluntary in its oscil- 
Memoirs of M. Broussonnet. 
S45. 
lations, the hedysarum gyrans, a species 
of Sainifoins of Bengal, that raises and 
depresses its lateral folioles, day and night, 
without any external incitement. He 
gave an interesting account of the deter- 
miate directions taken by different parts 
of plants in spite of obstacles; of the 
progress of the roots to seek for moisture, 
and the inflections of the leaves m feats 
of light. 
Such subjects were far superior to those 
of his first writings, which were mere 
descriptions. of species: but he soon rose 
“to. still higber; and his Memoir on the 
Respiration of Fishes belon ws entirely to 
the philosophy uf natural history. He 
here shews the diminution in the intensity 
of respiration, and in the heat of the 
blood, progressively from birds to qua~ 
dr upeds, and from quadr pp reptiles ; 
he compares the size of the heart, andthe 
quantity of blood, in different fishes; ex- 
plains how it is that those which have 
small bronchial apertures can live out of 
the water longer than others; and relates 
saine experiments onthe different degrees 
of heat which fishes can support, and on 
substances that prove fatal to them when 
mixed with the water in which they swiin. 
The greater part of these ideas and facts 
had before been contained in his doctoral 
-thesis, 
His Memoir on the Teeth of Animals 
is of the saine class. ‘The dillerences be- 
tween those of carnivorousand of herbi- 
vorous anirnals; the Jamine of enamel 
which penetrate the substance of the lat- 
ter, and give to their crown the inequali- 
ty necessary for the purposes of tritura- 
tion; the ifinite variety in the number, 
figure, and position, of the teeth of qua- 
drupeds ; and the inference, that from the 
structure of the humab? teeth, man. 1s 
naturally both a frugiferous and carnivo- 
rous animal, in the proportion of 3 
these facts, though now familiar, were 
then neither void of novelty nor of ins 
terest: 
The experiments of Spallanzani and 
Bonnet on the reproductive power of 
aquatic salamanders, at this time excited 
a lively attention among natural sl 
phers. Broussonnet. repeated them on 
fishes; and fouud that these also repro~ 
duce every part of their fins, if the small 
bones are not actually torn out by the 
root. 
The whole of the above-mentioned la- 
bours were previous to his becoming a z 
member of the academy, and they are 
nearly all that he published on natural 
LAStOT ie It will doubtless appear 
prising 
to 9— 
Sule 
