714 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF HENRY MILNE-EDWARDS. 



If Milne-Edwards does not display the fervor of language and bold- 

 ness of theory of some of his contemporaries, such as Blainville, none 

 the less he roused a spirit of inquiry in his hearers, without which 

 there can be no really original research and an enthusiasm which sus- 

 tains the inquirer amidst the obscurities and disappointments of patient 

 investigation. 



He made a toiu- of Sicily in 1844, in company with Quatrefages and 

 Blanchard, that has become celebrated in the history of zoology. He 

 did not hesitate to go down into the sea to a depth of 8 meters, by 

 means of a diving apparatus, m order to study the life of marine 

 animals. Tliis practice has now become customary at Roscoflfs labora- 

 tory, under the direction of our co-worker, Lacaze-Duthiers, and the 

 soundings of the Talisman revealed many other mysteries to Alphonse 

 Milne-Edwards; but fifty years ago it was venturesome to take the 

 initiative, the apparatus being less perfect, the use of it less under- 

 stood, and it required considerable courage for a scientist to bury him- 

 self in this fashion for the first time in the depths of the sea in order 

 to wrest from it the secrets of life. 



At the same time, in the course of his daily life at Paris, Milne- Ed wards 

 made his home at the nuiseum a center for learned men, gathering 

 them around him in social evening reunions which are still remembered 

 by my contemporaries. One was sure of meeting there the highest 

 order of men, both Frenchmen and foreigners. Englishmen, attracted 

 by a common nationality, or at least ancestry, came willingly, and we 

 listened with respect to these men so devoted to science, an honor "to 

 their country; they were living models of the in'ofession to which each 

 of us intended to dedicate our lives. In the midst of this group the 

 refined, pleasing figure of Milne-Edwards was always seen moving 

 from one to another, ready to show his sympathy with each by an 

 appropriate word to the young as well as the old, and to express his 

 opinion, nearly always a characteristic one, in the scientific discussions 

 going on around him. 



This social and stirring life which he enjoyed, was interrupted in 1856 

 by a serious afte^'tion of the stomach. Milne Edwards had all his life 

 suffered from a delicate constitution struggling to resist disease. It 

 was thought at first that the crisis of this illness would be fatal. I 

 can still recall that face, sallow from jaundice, the eyes bright with the 

 fire of intellectual life. 



He at length partially triumphed over illness, it might be said by 

 the strength of his will power. Not only did he refuse to submit to 

 disease, but at this very time undertook the editing of his great work 

 on comparative physiology and anatomy which was to occupy him for 

 twenty-five years. What a forcible example of mental power, proving 

 that man should never despair, however great the perils and tests of 

 material or moral life! 



Meanwhile Milne-Edwards continued in the service of science and 



