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142 myself." However, he was always willing to hear the opinions of others, and to admire their work.

In 1733, four years after the death of Jean Gaston, Grand Duke of Tuscany (the last of the De Médicis), Buffon was elected a member of the Académie des Sciences.

He greatly improved and enlarged the much neglected Jardin des Plantes, having been appointed the director, and continued the work of regeneration begun by Dufay.

In 1744 Buffon published his Théorie de la Terre, which was ultimately included in the Histoire Naturelle. He had similar ideas to those of Laplace and Kant, namely, that the earth and other planets were thrown off from the sun in the molten state, and, after cooling, dry land, seas, mountains, etc., were formed by various agencies that are slowly working at the present day. Concerning the place where life began on this planet, he suggested, in his Époques de la Nature, the polar regions.