Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest (1784-1838), zoologist,... - Lot 20 - Conan Belleville Hôtel d'Ainay

Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest (1784-1838), zoologist, author of a Dictionary of Natural Sciences with Constant Duméril (published from 1816 to 1830). L.A.S. to the zoologist Henri Ducrotay de Blainville (1777-1850). Paris, November 6, 1830. 2 pp. ½ in-4. Yellowed paper. Provenance: Andrieux sale of Dec. 22, 1949. Long and beautiful letter on the negotiations and intrigues to succeed Lamarck to the chair of zoology at the Museum, and to be elected to the Academy of Sciences. "I saw Mr. Latreille [entomologist Pierre-André Latreille (1762-1833)] and Mr. Florent Prévost [naturalist (1794-1870)]; both gave me the certainty that your letter had been read in the assembly of professors. Mr. Florent added that Mr. CUVIER, who had unsealed it, was in great haste to send it immediately to the ministry. Constant Prévost and I had been thinking along the same lines as you, in attributing to whomever had the right to pull the trick that we wanted to play on you, first at the Museum, and later no doubt at the Institute. We had been aware of your hesitation in the Faculty of Science, and we wanted to take advantage of it, by depriving you, without much difficulty, of the jobs that had been the ambition of your life and that you had obtained only at the point of the sword. However, everyone in the Museum is very pleased with your determination, and those who are most pleased are those who had plotted against you, or those who were to benefit from the effect of the plotting....