After remaining in his office until July 9th, he retired from the Museum August 7th following, and finally withdrew to the country at Essones.
The organization of the Museum is the same now as in 1793, having for over a century been the chief biological centre of France, and with its magnificent collections was never more useful in the advancement of science than at this moment.
Let us now look at the composition of the assembly of professors, which formed the Board of Administration of the Museum at the time of his appointment.
The associates of Lamarck and Geoffroy St.Hilaire, who had already been connected with the Royal Garden and Cabinet, were Daubenton, Thouin, Desfontaines, Portal, and Mertrude.

The Nestor of the faculty was Daubenton, who was born in 1716.

He was the collaborator of Buffon in the first part of his _Histoire Naturelle_, and the author of treatises on the mammals and of papers on the bats and other mammals, also on reptiles, together with embryological and anatomical essays.

Thouin, the professor of horticulture, was the veteran gardener and architect of the Jardin des Plantes, and withal a most useful man.

He was affable, modest, genial, greatly beloved by his students, a man of high character, and possessing much executive ability.