68 Transactions of the Society. 



XIV. — The Last Years of d'Okbigny. 



The passing references to d'< Jrbigny's works other than those 

 exclusively dealing with the Foraminifera have thrown many side- 

 lights upon the occupations of his later years. It would be 

 impossible to give any idea of the amount of work which d'Orbign}^ 

 contributed to scientific literature between the date of his return 

 from South America and his death. Fischer and von Zittel have 

 called attention to many of his larger works, and the former has 

 given a list of his Memoirs and completed treatises, which com- 

 prises sixty-seven titles, from which it would be easy to select 

 half a dozen, any one of which might have constituted the life- 

 work of any ordinary man.^ In addition to these he contributed 

 many articles to his brother Charles's " Dictionnaire Universelle 

 de I'Histoire Naturelle," besides the one upon the Foraminifera 

 which I have discussed in Section XII. As Fischer rightly 

 observes, " one is stupefied by this incrediljle facility for observa- 

 tion and production." But it may be said that the production of 

 the volumes of the " Paleontologie Fran(;aise " was his last work, 

 which indeed he left unfinished (see p. 59). 



The concluding years of his life were not without disappoint- 

 ments, for no scientist who did so much, and expressed such 

 forcible views, and suggested such striking innovations could fail 

 to arouse the jealousies and criticisms of a certain section of his 

 contemporaries. His work was never substantially remunerative — 

 where is the pure scientist of whom this could be said ? — and in 

 his later years he was far from affluent. Knight of the Legion of 

 Honour and of several foreign orders, he felt that his work had 

 entitled him to election to the Institut de France, an honour which 

 he greatly coveted, and for which he was often ju^oposed.- There 

 exists a pamplilet of great rarity, which he composed with a view 

 to putting his qualifications before the electors of the Institut; it 

 is entitled, " Notice Analytique sur les Travaux de Geologie, de 

 Paleontologie et de Zoologie de M. Alcide d'Orbigny " (Paris, 



' XXI., pp. 441, 451-3. 



- He was j) resented for election to the Institut no less than eight times. 

 li^t. Oct. 29, 1838, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Baron Cuvier (Comptes 

 Kendus, vii., p. 765). 2nd. Dec. 2, 1844, to fill the place of Geoffroy-St. Hilaire 

 (C.K., six., p. 121.5). 3rd. May 13, 1850, to fill the place of de Blainville (C.R., 

 XXX., p. 611). 4th. Feb. 3, 185i, again to fill the place of de Blainville (C.R. xxxii., 

 p. 148). 5th. Dec. 29, 1861, to fill the place of Beudant (C.R., xxxiii., p. 715). 

 6th. April 12, 1852, to fill the place of Savigny (C.R., xxxiv., p. 568). 7th. March 9, 

 1857, to fill the place of Elie de Beaumont (C.R., xliv., p. 523). 8th. April 20, 1857, 

 to fill the place of Constant-Prevost (C.R., xliv., p. 839). Mme. Henri d'Orbigny 

 tells me that at the time of his death he was again a candidate, but had been 

 obliged to abandon his candidature on account of his ill-health. He was " presented " 

 five times by the Section of Zoology, and three times by that of Mineralogy. 



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