464 



NATURE 



[December 9, 1920 



The close of this frank admission of ignorance 

 has the characteristic Fabre touch, the precise 

 point of which is not very obvious. Bio-chemistry 

 and bio-physics are both very young, but they 

 have already had their triumphs, which pass auto- 

 matically into the contemned books. What is 

 wrong with the physics of the books except that 

 naturalists do not read it? 



The succeeding five chapters deal with the re- 

 markable life-histories of sitares, oil-beetles, and 

 the like, and they certainly demand the reader's 

 close attention. It is easier to follow the fine 

 study of the capricorn (the grub of the Cerambyx 

 beetle), which burrows in the stem of the oak. 



"This grub, so poor in sensory organs, gives us 

 with its prescience no little food for reflection. 

 It knows that the coming beetle will not be able 

 to cut himself a road through the oak, and it be- 

 thinks itself of opening one for him at its own 

 risk and peril. • It knows that the Cerambyx, in 

 his stiff armour, will never be able to turn and 

 make for the orifice of the cell ; and it takes care 

 to fall into its nymphal sleep with its head 

 to the door. It knows how soft the pupa's 

 flesh will be and upholsters the bedroom with 

 velvet." 



Here we have an instance of Fabre's strength 

 and -weakness ; the facts are so interesting ; the 

 discovery of them was a triumph ; the exposition 

 of them is extraordinarily vivid ; but the inter- 

 pretation seems wildly anthropomorphic. We do 

 not, we confess, understand instinctive behaviour ; 

 but we feel sure that the "inimitable observer," 

 as Darwin called him, was off the scent. We get 

 tired of this "knowing" and "bethinking," alh 

 the more because we doubt whether Fabre believed 

 in it himself. " It knows the future with a clear 

 vision," he says, "or, to be accurate, behaves as 

 though it knew the future." But even this wob- 

 bling between inaccurate and accurate expression 

 might have been accepted with good humour — 

 a little fly in the fine ointment of fact* for which 

 every naturalist is grateful — had not Fabre made 

 us wince by such obiter dicta as "now that the 

 evolutionists' interpretations of instinct have been 

 recognised as worthless." 



One of the fine qualities of Fabre's essays is 

 the way in which they raise questions which we 

 cannot answer. How is it that the sawfly Sirex, 

 which undergoes metamorphosis not far from the 

 centre of the trunk of the tree, makes its way out 

 •to the light by the shortest route ? Over and over 

 again we find these puzzling problems stated ; one 

 attempt at solutioij is tested and then another, 

 only to be rejected ; and then the author gives it 

 up for the time being : " I leave the matter to 

 NO. 2667, VOL. 106] 



the conscientious masters, to the experts who are 

 able to say: I do not know." This is much 

 more educative than a prejudiced dismissal of 

 evolutionism. 



Biologically of great interest is the essay on 

 insect colouring, in which Fabre expounds and 

 illustrates the theory that various bright colours 

 are due to, a utilisation of ammonium urate or 

 some related nitrogenous waste-product. 



"While the larvae of the Hunting Wasps, un- 

 able to do better, stipple themselves with uric acid, 

 there are plenty of industrious creatures that are 

 able to make themselves a superb dress by pre- 

 serving their excretions in spite of their own open 

 sewers. With a view to self-embellishment [again 

 the anthropomorphic taint], they collect and 

 treasure up the dross which others hasten to expel. 

 They turn filth into finery." 



When he got hold of an attractive idea, Fabre 

 often let himself go, and we like him none the 

 less for that. 



" Nature, that sublime economist, delights in these 

 vast antitheses which upset all our conceptions of 

 the values of things. Of a pinch of common char- 

 coal she makes a diamond ; ... of the filthy 

 waste products of the organism she makes the 

 splendours of the insect and the bird. The metal- 

 lic marvels of the Buprestis and the Ground- 

 Beetle ; the amethyst, ruby, sapphire, emerald and 

 topaz of the Humming-Bird ; glories which would 

 exhaust the language of the lapidary jeweller: 

 what are they in reality? .\nswer : .\ drop of 

 urine." 



It seems almost profane to ask how- 

 many of the pigments of birds are known to be 

 chemically related to urates ; it seems niggling to 

 ask whether the picturesque reference to sapphire 

 and emerald is relevant at all, since these par- 

 ticular colours in the humming-bird are surely due 

 to physical sculpturing rather than to any number 

 of drops of urine. 



The Fabre we like best is the patient and in- 

 genious and sympathetic observer who tells us, in 

 other chapters, of the accomplishments of the 

 burying-beetles and their not less marvellous 

 limitations, of " death-feigning " in Scarites and 

 Buprestis, of animal hypnosis at higher levels, 

 of the supposed suicide of scorpions, and of the 

 vie intitne of half a hundred beetles. W'as there 

 ever such an observer? We suppose Reaumur 

 and two or three others might be mentioned. But 

 w-as there ever any other observer of this rank who 

 could tell his story so that we fancy ourselves 

 seeing what he saw? We know- of none. -\nd 

 so we come back to our homage to Fabre. 



