A Scientific Slaughterer 43 



Flourens/ Magendie ^ and Claude Bernard.^ 

 If we want to obtain both complete immobility 

 of the victim and also its preservation during a 

 long period without going bad, the simplest and 

 most natural idea which comes to us is that of 

 tinned foods. Our congress would suggest the 

 use of some preserving liquid, just as the 

 famous Landes scientist did when he was con- 

 fronted with his Buprestes ; they would attri- 

 bute exquisite antiseptic virtues to the Wasp's 

 poison-fluid ; but these strange virtues would 

 still remain to be proved. And perhaps the 

 conclusion of that learned assembly, like the 

 conclusion of the sage of the Landes, would be 

 a purely gratuitous supposition which would 

 simply substitute one unknown quantity for 

 another, giving us in the place of the mystery 

 of those uncorrupted tissues the mystery of that 

 wonderful preserving fluid. 



If we insist, if we point out that the larvae 

 need, not preserved food, which could never 



^ Marie Jean Pierre Flourens (1794- 1867), the celebrated French 

 physiologist, appointed perpetual secretary of the Academy of 

 Science in 1833 and a member of the French Academy. — Trans- 

 lator's Note. 



^ Frangois Magendie (1783-1855), professor of anatomy in the 

 College de France, noted for his experiments on the physiology of 

 the nerves. — Translator' s Note. 



^ Claude Bernard (1813-1878), another distinguished French 

 physiologist and perhaps the most famous representative of ex- 

 perimental science in the nineteenth century. — Translator's Note. 



