LIFE AND WORK OP FABRE BOUVIER. 589 



naturalists, and the most marvelous of poets in the modern and 

 really legitimate sense of the word." 



A poet he was in his "Souvenirs entomologiques," as also in the 

 ode on " Nombre " which resembles Victor Hugo, and in his volume 

 of provincial chants (Oubreto prouvengalo) which brings Mistral 

 to mind. But we must leave a domain where Maeterlink has the 

 right to be judge, and study the " Souvenirs entomologiques " the 

 better to know the scientific work of Fabre. This work begins 

 with a research on the reproductive organs of the Myriapods, a 

 doctoral thesis not devoid of good points, but which does not indi- 

 cate the direction in which the author should turn to find success 

 and fame. Fabre w^as no more an anatomist than a systematist. 

 He studied actual life and the dissecting scalpel as well as the 

 entomological pin aroused deep horror for those all ended in death. 

 The merely chance reading of a memoir by Leon Dufour showed 

 him " some horizons not yet suspected " and he started in the fur- 

 row "which proved to be his calling." This memoir treats of a preda- 

 tory wasp of the genus Cerceris, which captures exclusively the 

 Buprestis beetles and piles them up for its larvae in a cell dug in the 

 ground. The beetles first are inert and Dufour considered them as 

 dead, but for many weeks they retain all their freshness and to 

 explain this astonishing mystery the aged entomologist of Landes 

 supposed that in killing them, the Cerceris inoculated them with its 

 venom as an antiseptic to prevent decay. This hypothesis is not at 

 all incredible; but Fabre always had a longing for the exact truth 

 and he wanted to know all the details of the drama. As this species, 

 Cerceris hupresticida, is rare in Provence he studied a hunter of 

 weevils, CerceHs tuheradata, abounding in the vicinity of his home. 

 Multiplying observations and originating some ingenious experi- 

 ments, he came to a conclusion which disproved Dufour's hypothesis. 

 The prey of the Cerceris are not dead ; the wasp has struck them in 

 the nerve centers with its sting and made them motionless by its 

 venomous prick; rendered almost lifeless they will be defenseless 

 and always fresh victims for the gluttonous larvae of the Cerceris. 

 This work inaugurated the series of entomological researches by the 

 author. Its inherent value is very great, but its superior merit is 

 that of introducing the experimental method into the study of the 

 habits of insects, a method almost entirely neglected by Reaumur 

 and by the Hubers. This method became particularly advantageous 

 in the ingenious hands of the eager investigator who was the loader 

 in it It characterized all his entomolog-ical works and constituted 

 one of his principal titles to the gratitude of learned men It is 

 recognized today in its full value throughout France and America 

 where it is practiced by numerous biologists. The institute recog- 



