A Memorable Lesson 



zable substance that gives the luminous mush- 

 room Its soft, white light, which Is like the 

 beams of the full moon. It would be inter- 

 esting to know whether certain boletlturn blue 

 owing to the presence of an Indigo which Is 

 more liable to change than dyers' Indigo and 

 whether the green of the so-called delicious 

 milk-mushroom when bruised Is due to a like 

 cause. 



All these patient chemical Investigations 

 would tempt me. If the rudimentary equipment 

 of my laboratory and especially the Irrevo- 

 cable flight of age-worn hopes permitted It. 

 The day has passed for It now; there Is no 

 time left to me. No matter: let us talk chem- 

 istry once more, for a little while; and, for 

 want of something better, let us revive old 

 memories. If the historian, now and again, 

 takes a small place In the story of his animals, 

 the reader will kindly excuse him : old age Is 

 prone to these reminiscences, the bloom of 

 later days. 



I have received. In all, two lessons of a sci- 

 entific character In the course of my life: one 

 In anatomy and one In chemistry. I owe the 

 first to the learned naturalist Moquln-Tandon, 

 who, on our return from a botanizing expe- 

 dition to Monte Renoso, in Corsica, showed 

 42? 



