Joseph-Philippe-François Deleuze

“ In the midst of this imposing spectacle, the activity of peaceful industry,the variety of the plantations, the balmy air, the over-arching walks, the view which, from a rising ground covered with ever-green trees, extends over the city and the surrounding country; the number of persons who forget in these retreats the cares and agitations of the world; all conspire to render the Museum an abode of tranquillity and intellectual delight. ”

“ From the green-house we descend a small declivity, and by hollow paths regain the spot from which we started. Each of the enclosures is encircled by a trellis of different workmanship ; and the alleys are shaded by trees equally remarkable for their variety and their beauty.
In this part of the establishment are assembled all the foreign trees and shrubs which pass the winter in the open air, and no where do we see so great a number of species arrived at their full dimensions. As they are nourished by a rich soil, and carefully cultivated, their growth is surprisingly rapid. ”

“ Of all the branches of natural history, botany is the best suited to the female sex ; it presents nothing to offend their delicacy ; it furnishes them amusement in retirement, and lends interest to their walks; attaches them to the cultivation of their gardens; assists them to develope a habit of observation in their children; and affords an opportunity of gratifying their benevolence, by making the poorer inhabitants of the country acquainted with useful plants. ”

“ And who would disdain the examination of these animals, many of whose species are celebrated, either for their peculiar habits, for the phenomena which they exhibit, for the terror which they inspire, or for the fables of which they have been the subject ? That the study of reptiles has become almost
a passion amongst naturalists, is a fact attested by the great perfection to which this branch of natural history is brought at the present day ”

“ Those who devote themselves to the study of a single branch of natural history, soon learn to appreciate that part of the establishment which particularly interests them, but even after a lapse
of years are hardly able to understand the value of the rest. Foreigners, and those amongst the curious who have other duties to fulfil, other occupations to pursue and little time at their disposal, require to be told what is most worthy of their attention, and directed where to find it. ”

“ COLLECTIONS of natural history are generally designed to unite the most interesting and the most curious amongst the productions of nature; to show in each family the objects best calculated to give an idea of its characteristic forms, and those which indicate the link between one family and another; to establish the principles of classification; and also to show the natural state and the origin of the different substances circulated by means of commerce. To this end they must be well classed, but it is not necessary that they should be very numerous. ”

“ They fill up straits, unite islands, which rest upon heaps of these polypi; and, as Peron says, whilst man is, with the utmost labour and difficulty, endeavouring to build on the surface of the earth fabricks which at once betray his weakness and the power of time, a small insect, of whose existence he was not aware, erects in in the depths of the ocean those astonishing monuments of a power that bids defiance to ages. ”

“ But the collections of the Museum arc destined to a much more extended and important purpose; namely, the progress of science. The object for which they were formed, that towards which
they ought to tend, is to assemble the greatest possible number of species, taken at different ages and in different places, in order to determine the essential characters which, being common to several species, unite them into genera; to afford, in short, the means of considering beings under every relation they bear to each other and to man; and to enable us to write their history. ”

“ This manner of considering natural history was particularly pleasing, to a mind that delighted in contemplating the universe of things as a whole : and indeed, in nature where all is harmony , the most different beings are placed side by side, and the imagination seizes at once the links which unite, and the characters which separate them.
According to Buffon, the end of a general collection was attained, when it captivated the attention, and led the beholder to seek in living nature what was thus imperfectly represented ”

“ The want of space not having permitted the arrangement of all the reptiles to be made according to the degree of affinity of the genera, we shall not, in pointing out the objects which are more worthy of notice in this collection, designate them by the cases in which they now are contained, as we have done for the birds; because as the fishes are about to be removed into the room occupied by the library, the reptiles will then be distributed more at large and in their natural order, when the description we give will be found consistent with the new arrangement. ”

“ Botany is too extensive a science to be learned in a single year. Those whom a decided taste attaches to this study, should proceed with method, and avoid embracing too great a variety of objects, at once : during the first season they should content themselves with verifying on several species the characters of the genera treated of by the professor, and the following year, should resort to the garden at the opening of vegetation, and examine all the plants in succession, as they bloom and mature their seeds. ”

“ We are now arrived at the second class of minerals, that of stones, or earthy substances. These productions are generally of brilliant and beautiful colours; amongst them are classed those rare and desirable stones which art transforms into objects of dress and ornament. In the first place,
under the name of quartz, we see one of the most abundant species in nature, and the modifications of which are the most numerous and diversified. ”

“ The Museum possesses more than twenty-five species of frogs. The two most common in France are the green and brown frogs: the thighs of the first are esteemed good food. The American species, called the bull-frog, is four times larger than the green, and feeds on waterfowl ; which it seizes by the feet, and drags under water. A specimen of this voracious frog is here seen, preserved in spirits of wine, into which it was thrown when taken, at the time it was endeavouring to swallow a duck, one half of which had not yet been gorged. ”

“ The galleries of botany are not open to the public, and like those of comparative anatomy, they offer little to interest spectators unacquainted with natural history; herbariums in cases, bits of wood covered with bark, or sections exhibiting the texture, and fruit, dried or preserved in spirits, are objects little calculated to strike the eye, though extremely useful for study; but they are at all times accessible to amateurs and to persons engaged in scientific researches, or desirous of comparing their herbariums with that of the Museum. ”

“ They run upon the mud, which they furrow with their bills in search of insects; in other respects they have the habits of the snipes. At the bottom of this case is the boat-bill (can-
croma cochlearia) , which lives in the warm parts of South America; it perches upon trees on the borders of rivers, whence it darts upon the fish. It is remarkable for its large bill, which is like the bowls of two spoons with their concave sides adjoining, and for the long black feathers which hang from the head of the male. ”

“ The garden, the buildings and the collections, form a magnificent monument, but it is the extent given to the instruction which has infused new life into the institution, and rendered it of general utility. ”

“ On this occasion he examined and delineated all the organs not perfectly ascertained ; and some years after, the female dying also, he confirmed his former observations and compared the sexes. The anatomy of the elephant, of which we had only the skeleton befope, is now as well known as that of the horse; a fresh proof of the utility of a menagerie for the progress of natural history.
The inconveniences experienced in the dissection of the elephant at the hottest season of the
year, rendered obvious the necessity of an anatomical laboratory, and that now existing was constructed. ”

“ The botanical garden has been augmented one-third; those of agriculture, fruit-trees, and economical plants, and several parterres, have been formed; the grounds have been more richly adorned with shrubs and flowers, and the menagerie has been planted with trees yielding seed for the propagation of useful species: the extent of the culture is as 9 to I.
Of the collections, that of living plants has been doubled; that in the herbarium is six times as great; and that of fruits and other productions of the vegetable kingdom has increased in the same
proportion. ”

“ This beautiful bird, which is nearly the size of a partridge, lives on the banks of rivers in Guyana. The different colours of its plumage are rather dark, but shaded with such delicacy that they can be compared to those of the most beautiful moths. By its side is the agami of South America (psophia crepitans) , also called the trumpeter, from the hollow sounds it utters, which seem to come from its abdomen; its plumage is blackish with metallic shades of blue and violet; it is so easily tamed, that it conducts the farmyard fowls as dogs do the flocks. ”

“ The cardiacea consist of more than one hundred and fifty species, divided into five genera, of which the cardium, is the most numerous. It is seldom that the two valves of the cardium cos- tatum, are found belonging to the same individual: the specimen in the Museum is of an uncommon size. The c. æolicullz, cardissa, junonice} and unedo
inhabit the seas of hot countries: they are not very common, and are remarkable for their form and colour. The isocardice are very singular shells in the form of a heart, the extremities of which are pointed and twisted like ram's horns. ”

“ This collection, the most complete in its kind in existence, is the more interesting, as all the species may be cultivated in France, and as many of them are eminently proper for cabinet-making and joinery: the wood of the black walnut, the red maple and the sugar-maple, is as beautiful and susceptible of as high a polish as the trees of India. All the samples are from middle sized stocks, and the bark has been preserved wherever it offered interesting or peculiar characters. ”

“ In the construction of a vast edifice, a single architect projects the plan, orders the distribution , and directs the first operations; but different artists are employed to perfect the details, and to form a harmonious whole by labouring after a common conception : when the attention of an individual is distracted by a variety of objects, essential things are likely to be neglected for others of less importance. If the Museum owes its splendour to Buff on , to this magnificent establishment Buffon owes his fame. ”

“ We now come to the grallce, or waders, so called from the length of their legs ; they form the fifth order in the general system of classification. Those of the two first genera, which occupy the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth cases, differ from all others in being deprived of the power of flight. The first is the ostrich (struthio camelus) ; this bird, celebrated in the remotest ages, is sometimes eight feet high; it lives in herds in the sandy deserts of Africa, and feeds on grains and herbage; no animal can run so fast. ”

“ In the bottom of the case is the ape with united toes (simia syndactjla, Raffles) , a new species. Besides the remarkable character of the toes being united as far as the last joint but one, the absence of hair on the neck, and the swelling of the throat, lead us to suppose, that the economy of this ape must be as curious as it is new in the history of animals.
Beginning our inspection of the cases by those
to the left of the entrance of this room, we first see the numerous family of apes, natives of the warmest regions of the ancient continent : they are extremely lively and active. ”

“ If an animal dies, which is not in the galleries of zoology and anatomy, its skin is stuffed, the skeleton is prepared, and the soft parts are preserved in spirits; nor is the precaution neglected of searching the body for intestinal worms: thus, besides the advantages for studying living nature, from the menagerie the cabinet and the collection of drawings are daily enriched. ”

“ No person is admitted into the interior of the parks or lodges, unless he is conducted by a member of the administration.
The space destined for tame animals, which walk about at liberty, is divided into fourteen parks or enclosures, six to the west and eight to the east of the edifice called the rotunda. These parks, round which the public can walk, are subdivided into compartments, each terminated by one side of a building into which the
animal retires at will in the day time, and is shut up during the night. ”

“ The guillemots (uria, Lath.) , on the second shelf of the forty-eighth case, are stupid birds which live on fish and crabs, and build their nest in the clefts of steep rocks. The colymbus grylle changes its colour more decidedly than has been yet observed in any other bird, being white in winter, and quite black in summer. We have here an individual killed during the intermediate season, whose plumage is white, speckled with black. By its side is the small colymbus, known to travellers by the name of the Greenland pigeon, which lives in the north, and builds
its nest under ground. ”

“ Its skin is without scales, and its pectoral fins are supported as though it had arms; the rays on the head are long and moveable; and they are kept in motion while it lies imbedded in the mud, and thus serve as a bait for the small fish, which, being deceived by the similitude, mistake them for worms, and become a prey to the frog-fish. We have eight species of the genus antemiarius, described and figured by M. Cu- vier in the Memoirs of the Museum. They are small fish, whose pectoral fins, supported by a long pedicle, enable them to crawl upon the mud. ”

“ But in casting our eye over what has passed during this interval, we feel ourselves affected with sentiments of profound grief; in the space of one month, two of our most celebrated professors have been taken from us. Their names, will always constitute the glory of the establishment, and the impetus they have given to it will not be weakened; but to their pupils there is yet no consolation for their loss, and to their colleagues is recalled every day the charm of their society. ”

“ The wretchedness of the times was now sensibly felt; the reduced state of the finances, the depreciation of the funds, the cessation of foreign commerce, and the employment of every species of revenue and industry for the prosecution of the war, were serious hindrances to the projected improvements.
And indeed, not only during the first years of terror and destruction, but from 1795 to the end of the century, the establishment presented astonishing contrasts. ”