o f about ten or twelve. Both parties a£ted with fpirit,
and difplayed great propriety both in their gefture and
elocution. I was greatly aftonilhed at the furprizing purity-
with which they pronounced the French tongue. The
reprefentation was concluded by a ballet and various
dances, adapted to the ages and ftrength o f the feveral performers.
The national dance was introduced. It is executed
by two perfons, who continue nearly on the fame fpot,
but ufe a variety of addons with the arms, body, and head,
while their ihoulders are elevated and deprefied in exadt
meafure. It is exprefiive o f a courtihip ; firft languiihing
looks, coynefs, refufal, and invitation, &c. and at length,
after the two dancers have once or twice changed places,
they make a couple of circles brifkly, and conclude with an
embrace.
Alter the play was a ball and fupper, to which were admitted
feveral o f the nobility and foreign gentlemen, and a
few o f the cadets. About twelve a collation was ferved upon
feveral tables, at which parties promifcuouily' ranged them-
felves. As I was walking about the room, one o f the young
ladies obferving a foreigner unprovided with a feat, quitted
the table where fhe was fitting, and politely invited me to
make one of their company ; an invitation I immediately accepted.
I withdrew, with the reft of the company, about
two o’clock in .the morning, highly delighted with the eafe
and innocent vivacity o f my fair entertainers ; whofe polite-
nefs and affability befpoke the elegant fpirit o f the inftitution.
C ]
C H A P . VII.
Anecdotes o f profeffor Pallas.— His travels and works.— Cir~
cumjlances o f D r. Samuel Gmelin’s death.— Memoirs of
Guldenftaedt.— His travels into Georgia and Imeretia.—
Reception at the courts o f the princes Heraclius and Solomon.—
Works of Guldenftaedt.
THE * prefent learned and eminent naturalift and tra- c h a p .
veller, Dr. Pallas o f Peterfbutgh, is fon o f Simon. V*X' .
Pallas, profeflbr o f furgery at Berlin and firft furgeon o f the
Charity Hofpital in that city. Simon Pallas, the father, made
himfelf known among the writers o f phyfick, by a Treatife
on the Operations o f Surgery, publiihed in 176 3 ; and by a
Supplement to it, On the Difeafes of the Bowels, in 17 70
in which year he died at the age of 76.
Peter Simon Pallas, the fon, was born in 17 3 1 , and probably'
received the early part o f his education at Berlin ; but in
the year 1750 he was fent to Gottingen, to ftudy under the
celebrated Haller, to whom he was ftrorigly recommended by
Dr. Meckel, the colleague o f his father at Berlin, and pro-
feffor of anatomy.
He afterwards purified his ftudies in Holland, and, in the
year 1760, took his degree o f docftor o f phyfick at Leyden ;
on which occafion he wrote a very ingenious treatife under
the title, of Differtatio inauguralis de infejiis viventibus intra
viventia. In this trait the author appears to 'have' taken,
great pains to diftinguifh thefe noxious animals ; and has-
■ :< I am indebted for a g rea t p a rt o f this P u lten e y , w e ll kn own to th e pu b lick b y his
■account o f M r , I alias to the ingenious D r . “ G en e ra l V iew o t th e W r itin g s o fI.in n :E u s.’>
with