100 THE ANATOMY OF A CATERPILLAR. 



brated artist Vaudeleer undertook to engrave 

 them ; but being preoccupied with numerous other 

 engagements, he delayed from time to time the 

 fulfilment of his promise. Impatient to see so 

 important a work completed, Lyonnet determined 

 to try his skill, and having obtained from the artist 

 an hour's lesson in engraving, he then produced, as 

 his first attempt, the eight last plates in that famous 

 treatise, which are as admirable for the delicacy as 

 for the correctness of their execution. Encouraged 

 by his success, he now resolved to apply the talent 

 he had thus discovered himself to possess for the 

 illustration of his own scientific researches. He 

 hesitated for some time before he finally decided 

 to undertake the investigation of a subject which 

 he believed would exhaust any other patience than 

 his own. This was the anatomy of one single 

 caterpillar, that which infects the willow-tree, 

 and which is so common in Holland (Phalcena 

 cossus of Linnaeus). 



In his hands this became a unique work ; and no 

 sooner did his book, describing and figuring it, 

 make its appearance to the world, than it was im- 

 mediately ranked among the most surprising chefs- 

 d'ceuvres of human industry. It was a quarto volume 

 of more than 600 pages, adorned with 18 plates. 

 The author here exhibited all the parts of this 

 minute animal with the utmost detail and exact- 



