304 



EDWARDS, HENRI MILNE. 



and undertook to make a scientific analy- 

 sis of it. This, with his brother's influence, 

 seems to have turned his tastes in the direc- 

 tion which they permanently took. He be- 

 gan the series of his contributions to knowl- 

 edge in the year of his graduation, when he 

 presented several memoirs to the Academy of 

 Sciences, one of which, " On the Influence of 

 the Nervous System upon Digestion," which 

 he prepared in conjunction with Breschet, at- 

 tracted general attention. In 1825 he pub- 



HENRI MILNE EDWARDS. 



lished, in association with Yavaseur, a " Man- 

 ual of Materia Medica." This work, besides 

 going through several French editions, was 

 translated into English, German, and Dutch. 

 In 1826 he began, with Victor Audouin, a se- 

 ries of researches on the anatomy, physiology, 

 and zoology of the marine animals of the French 

 coasts, in the prosecution of which the two col- 

 laborators, with their families, took up their 

 residence at different points, and made careful 

 explorations, during four years, of the littoral 

 and islands. Among the fruits of this investi- 

 gation were a memoir on the circulation of the 

 blood in crustaceans, which, in 1828, gained 

 the Academy's prize in physiology, and a work, 

 in two volumes, on " The Littoral of France." 

 In 1832 he was appointed Professor of Natu- 

 ral History in the College Henri IV, and Pro- 

 fessor of Public Hygiene and Natural History 

 in the Central School of Arts and Manufact- 

 ures. In 1834 he visited Algeria, exploring 



its coasts in the study of marine zoology, and 

 on his return presented to the Academy sev- 

 eral memoirs, embodying the results of his 

 observations, which were afterward included 

 in his "Recherches anatomiques, physiolo- 

 giques, et zoologiques sur les Polypes" (1838). 

 In 1838 he was admitted to the Academy of 

 Sciences, taking the place that had been left 

 vacant by Cuvier. In 1841 he succeeded 

 Audouin in the chair of Entomology in the 

 Museum, to leave it in 1861 for that of Mam- 

 malogy. In 1844 he visited Sicily 

 with MM. de Quatrefages and E. 

 Blanchard, where he made the first 

 effort in those submarine explora- 

 tions and investigations of life in 

 the depths of the sea which have 

 since been so fruitful in results, and 

 with the institution and prosecution 

 of which his name is inseparably 

 associated. The results of this mis- 

 |^-\ sion were published in three vol- 

 umes. On his return from it, he was 

 appointed a professor in the Facul- 

 |g; ty of Sciences in Paris, in place of 

 P M. E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, in a 

 Hi position to which he had already 

 1 been inducted as a substitute in 

 1 1838. Five years later he was made 

 Dean of the Sorbonne, and occupied 

 the office during the rest of his 

 life. 



M. Edwards wrote much. "When 

 he was nominated to the Academy 

 in 1838, the "notice" accompanying 

 his presentation contained summa- 

 ries of seventy original memoirs, 

 without including his articles in the 

 " Dictionnaire classique d'Histoire 

 Naturelle" and Dr. Todd's "En- 

 cyclopedic d'Anatomie et de Phy- 

 siologie," or his additions to La- 

 marck's "Histoire des Animaux sans 

 Vertebres," or his " Elements de Zo- 

 ologie," or the elementary works he 

 had prepared. His publications since then have 

 been very frequent, and they touch upon all 

 branches of zoology. Some of his works have 

 been named in connection with the events with 

 which their publication was associated. Others 

 are the " Manual of Surgical Anatomy," which 

 was published in 1827, and was translated 

 into Dutch and English ; " Elements of Zo- 

 ology," 1834, included by Beudant in the 

 " Elementary Course of Natural History " ; a 

 general work on the Crustaceans, in three large 

 volumes, and an Atlas, 1836; works on the 

 Ascidians, 1839, and the Acalephs, Sperma- 

 tophores, Cephalopods, and Eolidians, 1841; 

 on the Structure and Classification of Recent 

 and Fossil Polyps, 1848-'49 ; on British Fossil 

 Corals, 1851-'52 ; on the Morphology and Clas- 

 sification of Crustaceans, 1851 ; on the General 

 Tendencies of Nature, 1851 ; on the Fossil Po- 

 lyps of the Palaeozoic Formations, 1851 ; on 

 the Natural History of Corals proper, 1857 to 



