ESSAY-REVIEWS 427 



THE INSECT AND THE HERMIT, by Charles H. O'Donoghue, 

 D.Sc, F.Z.S. : on Fabre, Poet of Science, by Dr. C. V. Legros, trans- 

 lated by Bernard Miall. [Pp. 352, with a Frontispiece.] (London : 

 T. Fisher Unwin, 19 15. Price 10s. 6d. net.) 



From the dawn of Biology insects have attracted attention and 

 served as the examples, real and imaginary, of many virtues 

 and pointed the moral of many fables. What boy away from 

 the stunting confines of a town has passed through his school- 

 days without at any rate a mild attack of bug-hunting ? How 

 many men have carried the after-effects of this into later life, 

 and become collectors of some particular group of insects ? 

 Nor is this a matter for surprise when one considers the 

 enormous number of species comprised within the class, many 

 more indeed than the rest of the animal and vegetable kingdoms 

 put together, their universal plenty, and the facility with 

 which most of them can be handled. The variety of their 

 forms, often quaint and bizarre, and the glory of their flashing 

 colours cannot fail to strike the most superficial observer. 

 The marvellous manner in which they are adapted to their 

 many different modes of life invariably calls forth admiration. 

 Perhaps they appeal to us most of all because we find among 

 them animals living in large communities exhibiting a social 

 organisation not unlike that of man himself, and in some cases 

 better, for shirkers and wasters are not tolerated. They offer 

 an inexhaustible field for research, but only yield their secrets 

 to the indefatigable worker. 



To France we owe much of our knowledge of insect life and 

 structure. Reaumur, by his accurate observations, led the way 

 in these studies, and was followed by the Hubers with their 

 work on the bee and Leon Dufour. The last named, although 

 he has done much good work, is likely to be remembered chiefly 

 as the author who inspired Fabre. After Reaumur, in spite 

 of the other authors, a gap remained and the study of insects 

 was somewhat neglected. Let us turn to consider the man 

 who was to take up the threads. 



Jean Henri Fabre was born in December 1823 in Saint- 

 Leons, a small village in the Haut Rouergue. His parents 

 were poor farmers, and his early life was passed under wretched 

 conditions. When seven years old he went to the village 

 school kept by his godfather ; thence five years later he passed 

 to the school in the small town of Rodez. At nineteen we 



