Director of the Royal Botanical Garden, and certainly the premier French scientist of the Enlightenment, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) conducted a broad range of experiments, from the burning effects of the sun's rays, to the tensile strength of timber. His studies of plant life led to his creation of a renowned nursery, his zoological interests to his development of an aviary and menagerie. His massive, thirty-six-volume System of Nature was the most widely collected work of the Enlightenment, reaching more readers than even the classics of Voltaire and Rousseau.
