Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 4.djvu/374

Rh ministrations of the countries he visited, suggesting at the same time measures for their amelioration and for the correction of existing abuses. He had projected a great work on the agricultural state of the empire, and had even executed considerable portions of it, com- prehending the French Flora arranged according to modern views of classification, when the political events of 1814 put an entire stop to the work.

In 1807 he was appointed Professor of Medicine at Montpellier ; and in 1810, a chair of Botany was instituted in the same Academy, which he was invited to occupy. Under his superintendence, the Botanical Garden of that city was more than doubled in extent, and the study of Botany assumed a degree of importance it had never before possessed. De Candolle quitted Montpellier in 1816, very much to the regret of the students and of his colleagues, who em- ployed every means in their power to induce him to remain among them : but his country had been restored to liberty, and he was firm in his determination to fix himself in his native city, and devote to its services the remainder of his days.

Soon after his return to Geneva he was appointed to the chair of Natural History, an office which had been created expressly that he might occupy it. Among the first of the public benefits which he conferred upon his countrymen was the establishment of a Botanic Garden. The government of Geneva willingly lent their aid in form- ing so laudable an institution, in which he was also assisted by a great number of voluntary subscribers. The enthusiasm which he in- spired for his favourite science was remarkably displayed on one particular occasion, when, being desirous of procuring for Geneva a copy of a Flora of Mexico which had been deposited with him for a few days, an appeal which he made to the public was responded to with such alacrity, that in the course of eight days, one thousand drawings had been finished by amateurs, who volunteered their ser- vices on the occasion.

The activity and powers of De Candolle's mind were displayed in a multitude of objects of public utility, the furtherance of which ever called forth in him the most lively interest ; — whether it was the improvement of agriculture, the cultivation of the fine arts, the advancement of public instruction, the diffusion of education, or the amelioration of the legislative code. Feeling deeply of what vast importance to the welfare of mankind it is that sound principles of political economy should be extensively promulgated and well un- derstood by all ranks of men, De Candolle never failed to develope and enforce those principles in his lectures and popular discourses, as well as in his official agricultural reports. On these subjects, and especially with respect to the immense advantages which would ac- crue to the community from the unrestricted freedom of commerce, his views were those of the most enlightened policy, and exhibited a sagacity in advance of the times in which he lived.

As a lecturer, he possessed in an eminent degree the power of imparting to his auditors the enthusiasm which glowed within his own breast for the pursuits of natural history. Complete master of the