302 EAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



lished several memoirs on pure and applied Entomology ; 

 amongst others an Elementary Treatise on the Tegu- 

 mentary Skeleton of Insects, a work on the Muscardine 

 and another on the Pyrale, which did not appear till 

 after his death. 



NOTE V. 



The controversy alluded to in the text regarding the 

 nature of these organisms applies to all polypes, including 

 those of the Coral. These animals had been described 

 and named as plants even by Marsigli, who carefully 

 studied them in their living state. Peysonnel, a surgeon 

 of the Royal French Navy, was the first to recognise the 

 veritable nature of their pretended flowers, and he made 

 known his discovery to Reaumur.* But this illustrious 



* Reaumur, who was born at La Rochelle in 1683, and died in 

 1757, deserves to be regarded as one of the most distinguished 

 scientific men of France. From his earliest age he devoted himself to 

 science, and all his labours were preceded by the serious study of 

 mathematics. His first memoirs on Geometry gained him admit- 

 tance to the Academy of Sciences at the age of twenty -four. 

 Although he was possessed of an independent fortune, he laboured 

 with unwearied ardour, and occupied himself with the most varied 

 subjects. Every one is aware of the fact, that he invented the 

 thermometer which bears his name. The practical arts are, 

 moreover, indebted to him for the suggestion of a method for trans- 

 forming forged iron into steel, while to him are also due several 

 improvements in the fabrication of porcelain, and the introduction 

 into France of the manufacture of articles of block-tin. It was, 

 however, in his works on natural history, that he exhibited the 

 greatest originality, and even true genius. He devoted his atten- 

 tion first to Molluscs and Zoophytes, not only with the view of 

 describing their external forms,but in order to discover and explain 

 the most obscure phenomena of their lives. It was also from this 

 point of view that he studied Insects ; and the work which he has 

 left on this subject, under the title of Memoir es pour servir a I'Histoire 

 des Insectes, may be considered as a masterpiece of exact and 

 minute observation. 



