Alcide cVOrhigny. 59 



XIII. — The "Cours Elementaire" and the "Prodrome," 



1849-52. 



This is the last work of d'Orbigny with which the student of 

 the i'oraminifera has need to be concerned, and though apparently 

 it consists of two works, it is really composed of three parts, 

 which constitute a wdiole/ What strikes one most forcibly when 

 studying the life and work of d'Orbigny is the entliusiasm with 

 which he was always ready to embark upon works of vast extent — 

 witness the " grand ouvrage " of which we have disjecta onembra 

 in the " Tableau Methodique." and the Cuba and Vienna Memoirs, 

 arid others to which I shall have occasion to refer. As Fischer 

 says, " Les grands travaux exercaient sur lui une veritable 

 seduction." - As soon as lie had got the publication of his " Voyage 

 dans I'Amerique Meridionale " into full swing he devoted the rest 

 of Ills life to Palaeontology,'^ especially that of the lower zoological 

 orders. No collection of fossil Invertebrata existed in Prance, 

 and he set himself to work to form one ; we have seen something 

 of his methods (p. 18), and such was his success that the collection 

 he made, which was acquired by the State after his death (in 1858) 

 for 50,000 francs, numbers more than 100,000 specimens. Armed 

 with this collection as it grew, he undertook the " Paleontologie 

 Frau(;aise," which took from 1840 practically to the date of his 

 death (]857) to publish, and which was twice awarded the 

 Wollaston Fund by the Creological Society of London."^ Among the 

 3000 species recorded therein 2500 were described for the first time 

 by d'Orbigny.^ Fischer records the sensation which it produced in 

 the scientific world. "^ Before his death d'Orbigny superintended 

 the publication of eight volumes, illustrated by 1000 plates, of 

 this gigantic work, and after his death the Societe Geologique 

 resolved to continue it. Cotteau, Loriol, Deslongchamps, Piette, 

 and Fromental added special portions, but finally it had to be 

 abandoned in its turn for lack both of the means and of scientific 

 workers.'^ Nevertheless, Fischer says of it, " One may say, with- 

 out fear of contradiction, that most provincinl geologists are pupils 



^ (1) " Com's Elementaire de PaMontologie et de G^ologie Stratigraphiques." 

 Paris : i., 1849 ; ii., 1852. (With an atlas of 17 folding pis.). (2) " Prodrome de 

 Paleontologie Stratigraphique Universelle des Auimaux IMoUusques et Rayonu6s 

 faisant suite au Cours Elementaire de Paleontologie," etc. Paris : i., 1850 ; 

 ii., 1850 ; iii., 1852. 



- XXI., p. 435. 3 XVI., p. 830. 



■' According to the hiograi^hy in Larousse this was awarded to him twice. It 

 was first awarded to him in 1847, and in the following year (1848) he received one 

 moiety of the Pmid. 



' XXII., p. 13 ; XVI., p. 831. 



« XXI., pp. 441-2. - XXV., pp. 508, 521. 



