The Life of Jean Henri Fabre 



nite points, exactly where the invisible 

 nervous ganglia are located which control 

 the various movements. 



For the rest, the operative method varies 

 according to the species and anatomy of the 

 victim. 



In his investigation of the paralysers, 

 Dufour was unable to imagine any other 

 weapon of the chase than the mere inocula- 

 tion of a deadly virus; the Hymenopteron 

 has invented a means of immobilising her 

 victim without killing it, of abolishing its 

 movements without destroying its organic 

 functions, of dissociating the nervous sys- 

 tem of the vegetative life from that of the 

 life of reaction; to spare the first while an- 

 nihilating the second, by the precise adapta- 

 tion of this delicate surgery to the victim's 

 anatomy and physiology. Dufour was un- 

 able to provide anything better for the 

 larva's larder than mummified victims, 

 shrivelled and more or less flavourless; the 

 Hymenopteron provided them with living 

 prey, endowed with the strange prerogative 

 of keeping fresh indefinitely without food 

 and without movement, thanks to paralysis, 

 far superior in this connection to asepsis. 



u He, the master, skilled among the skil- 

 ful, trained in the finest operations of 

 336 



