10 Transactions of the Society. 



who took part with d'Orbigny pere in the foundation of the 

 Museum with Fleuriau de Bellevue in 1835. 



Beltiemieux, in his short memoir of the family, states that the 

 three natuialists founded the Societe des Sciences Naturelles de 

 la Charente Inferieure at the same time ; ^ but this is not so, the 

 Society was founded as early as 1732, and was flourishing when 

 the d'Orbigny family settled in the town — as is indicated in 

 the letter we have cited above. The Microscope, " du Cabinet 

 d'Histoire Naturelle,"- was placed by Fleuriau de Eellevue at 

 d'Orbigny's disposal, and an instrument formerly the property of 

 Fleuriau de Bellevue, and presented by him to the Museum at 

 La Eochelle, still exists, and is said to be the instrument used 

 b}^ the d'Orbignys. I have had the interesting experience of 

 examining some of d'Orbigny's own material through it, by the 

 courtesy of Dr. Etienue Loppe, curator of the Musee Fleuriau de 

 Bellevue, by whose good offices I have been furnished with the 

 photograph of the instrument which is reproduced on Plate VI, 

 fig. 1. I liave, however, submitted this photograph to Mr. T. H. 

 Court and to Dr. Charles Singer, and they are both of opinion 

 that it represents an instrument of later date than 1819. Dr. 

 Singer founds his opinion on the milling of the rims as shown, 

 which is of a type not introduced till later; Mr. Court, on the 

 other hand, argues from perhaps more concrete evidence.^ 



The type-specimens enumerated in the " Tableau Methodique " 

 are preserved in Paris, but the original collection and mounts of 

 the d'Orbignys, father and son, were stored, in a condition of 

 some dilapidation and neglect, in the Museum at La Eochelle 

 until 1884, when M. Charles Basset, a Member of the Societe des 

 Sciences Naturelles, was entrusted with the task of re-organizing 

 them. Tlie material was— and such part of it as yet remains is 

 still — preserved in little stout bottles of very common glass. Each 

 bottle contains one species, probably from mixed localities ; many 

 of them are unlabelled, but many are labelled "Madagascar," 

 "Bourbon," " Otahyte," and so on; these latter contain for the 



' XXIV., p. 355. 



- See the letter of d'Orbigny pere, ante. 



^ ]Mr. Court, in an iuLeresting letter on this photograph, observes : " The 

 Microscope is, in my opinion, of a date later than 1819. It is aii improved forjn 

 of the EJlis Aquatic Microscope, and is known as Raspail's Simple IMicroscope, 

 and, as far as I am aware, was used by him in 1827 and after in his work on 

 Organic Chemistry, which was published in 1833. I find an illustration of this 

 Microscope, exactly the same as the photograph you send, line for line, in a 

 Catalogue of Optical Instruments issued by Meuier, a French optician, in 1851, 

 or, it must be, after, as it prices the apparatus for photography by the collodion 

 process, which was not invented, till the year 1851. The price is 35 francs. 

 Although the instrument shown in the photograph appears to me to be of a much 

 later date than 1819, it is very likely that d'Orbigny used such a Microscope in a 

 more simple form in his investigations." Dr. Singer observes that, save for the 

 feature above referred to, there is nothing in the general construction of the instru- 

 ment to prevent our placing it in 1819. 



