PERRAULT AND HIS COLLEAGUES 231 



mollusks, starfishes and medusae, the fixation of Mytilus, 

 the silk of spiders, and a world of other things. 



Comparative Anatomy, chiefly of Mammals 



Perrault's descriptions and dissections of animals 

 which had been kept in the royal menagerie were 

 reprinted in two magnificent folios,^ intended to set 

 forth the glory of Louis XIV as well as the wonders of 

 nature. As a rule they do no more than set down the 

 facts of structure. Luminous general propositions are 

 not to be expected in an age when museums were few, 

 and anatomical records meagre. Perrault's Essais de 

 Physique ^ contain popular discussions on the mechanism 

 and senses of animals. Here are found short notices 

 of the retractile claw of the lion, the pointed papillae 

 on its tongue, the barbs and barbules of a feather, the 

 ruminant stomach, the spiral valve of a shark's intestine 

 (previously described by Swammerdam and Willughby), 

 the tracheae of an insect, &c. 



Duverney (1693) contributes a comparative study of 

 the human hand and the lion's paw. 



Birds 



Perrault (1666, 1671-6) investigates with much success 

 the structure of feathers, illustrating the subject by ex- 

 cellent diagrams, drawn as if from enlarged solid models, 

 which show the barbs and barbules of a flying bird and 

 an ostrich.^ He explains the difference between the 

 proximal and distal barbules, the use of the hooks, and 



^ M^moires pour servir a Vhiatoire nalurelle, Paris, 1671-6. 



^Physique is not limited to what we call PhynicSt but includes all the 

 phyfiical and natural sciences. 



• Perrault's figure of an ostrich feather is copied in Owen's Comparatim 

 Anatomy, Vol. II, p. 234. 



