PREFACE.
I undertook the inquiry of which this volume
is the result, after reading the recent work of M.
de Candolle,1 in which he analyses the salient
events in the history of 200 scientific men
who have lived during the two past centuries,
deducing therefrom many curious conclusions
which well repay the attention of thoughtful
readers. It so happened that I myself had been
leisurely engaged on a parallel but more ex¬
tended investigation—namely, as regards men
of ability of all descriptions, with the view of
supplementing at some future time my work
on Hereditary Genius. The object of that book
1 “ Histoire des Sciences et des Savants depuis deux
Siècles.” Par Alphonse de Candolle. Corr. Inst. Acad. Sc. de
Paris, &c. Genève, 1873.