Larval Dimorphism 



conic sections which I described on that black- 

 board, the learned hieroglyphics! 



Though all my efforts, which were the more 

 deserving because I had to work alone, led to 

 almost nothing in that congenial calling, I 

 would begin it all over again if I could. I 

 should love to be conversing for the first time 

 with Leibnitz 1 and Newton, 2 with Laplace 3 

 and Lagrange, 4 with Cuvier 5 and Jussieu, 6 

 even if I had afterwards to solve that other 

 arduous problem : how to procure one's daily 

 bread. Ah, young men, my successors, what 

 an easy time you have of it to-day! If you 

 don't know it, then let me tell you so by means 

 of these few pages from the life of one of 

 your elders. 



But let us not forget our insects, while list- 



^ottfried Wilhelm Baron von Leibnitz (1646-1716), 

 the discoverer of the differential and integral calculus. — 

 Translator's Note. 



2 Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), discoverer of the law 

 of gravitation. — Translator's Note. 



'Pierre Simon Marquis de Laplace (1749-1827), author 

 of La Mecanique celeste. — Translator's Note. 



'Joseph Louis Comte Lagrange (1736-1813), author of 

 La Mecanique analytique. — Translator's Note. 



6 Georges Leopold Chretien Frederic Dagobert Baron 

 Cuvier (1769-1832), the founder of the science of com- 

 parative anatomy. — Translator's Note. 



"Bernard Jussieu (1699-1777), the most celebrated of a 

 family of five famous French botanists, consisting of three 

 brothers, a nephew and a grand-nephew. — Translator's 

 Note. 



85 



