66 AN ASSIDUOUS STUDENT.

seventeen when he took this ill-advised step.
Shortly after he was sent to the army of the Rhine,
and proceeded to Laudau, where he beheld war in
all its terrors. The siege of this place being raised,
he rejoined the army, which encountered the Prus-
sians at Weissenburg, and was also present at the
defeat of Kaiserslautern. In this affair Peron was
wounded and taken prisoner, being carried first to
Wesel and then to Magdeburg. ‘This season of
forced retirement was turned by the young enthu-
siast to good account. He had never ceased to
pursue hig studies at every moment of leisure, and
now read with avidity such books as he could pro-
cure, principally narratives of voyages and travels,
and history.

At the close of 1794 he was liberated from prison,
and discharged from the army on account of the
loss of an eye, occasioned by the wounds he had
received in battle.

The three following years saw him an assiduous
student at the Medical School of Paris, where he
especially devoted himself to zoology and com-
parative anatomy, in which his rapid progress
astonished his associates. There was every pros-
pect of his attaining eminence in this department
of science, when all his anticipations were suddenly
blighted, in consequence of an ardent attachment,
in which he was doomed to disappointment. The