The Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi (1749–1804) is an encyclopaedic collection of 36 large (quarto) volumes written over much of his working life by the Comte de Buffon, and continued in eight more volumes after his death by his colleagues, led by Bernard Germain de Lacépède. The books cover what was known of the "natural sciences" at the time, including what would now be called material science, physics, chemistry and technology as well as the natural history of animals.