PROGRESS OF MINUTE ANATOMY 99 



animals became obsolete. The chief value of his work now 

 lies in what he considered its secondary feature, viz., that of 

 the detailed anatomy of the cockchafer, one of the common 

 beetles of Europe. Owing to changed conditions, therefore, 

 it takes rank with the work of ^lalpighi and Lyonet, as a 

 monograph on a single form. Originally he had intended 

 to publish a series of monographs on the structure of insects 

 typical of the different families, but that upon the cockchafer 

 was the only one completed. 



Comparison with the Sketches of Lyonet. — The quality 

 of this work upon the anatomy of the cockchafer was excel- 

 lent, and in 1824 it was accepted and crowned by the Royal 

 Institute of France. The finely lithographed plates were 

 prepared at the expense of the Institute, and the book was 

 published in 1828 with the following cumbersome title: Con- 

 siderations Generales sur rAnatomie comparee des Animaux 

 Articules auxqiieUes on a joint rAnatomie Descriptive dii 

 Mclolontha Vulgaris (Hajineton) donnee comme example dc 

 rOrganisation des Coleopteres. The 109 sketches with which 

 the plates are adorned are very beautiful, but one who com- 

 pares his drawings, figure by figure, with those of Lyonet 

 can not fail to see that those of the latter are more detailed 

 and represent a more careful dissection. One illustration 

 from Straus-Diirckheim will suffice to bring the achievements 

 of the two men into comparison. 



Fig. 30 shows his sketch of the anatomy of the central 

 nervous system. He undertakes to show only the main 

 branches of the nerves going to the different segments of the 

 body, while Lyonet brings to view the distribution of the 

 minute terminals to particular muscles. Comparison of other 

 figures — notably that of the dissection of the head— will 

 bring out the same point, viz., that Lyonet was more detailed 

 than Straus-Diirckheim in his explorations of the anatomy of 

 insects, and fully as accurate in drawing what he had seen. 



