THE COASTS OF SICILY. 35 



we completed some of the labours which we had begun 

 at Torre dell' Isola and the other stations which we 

 had subsequently made the scene of our researches. 



In the course of our various expeditions, Milne 

 Edwards had completed his researches on the 

 Acalephae, and had terminated those observations on 

 the circulation to which we have already referred, 

 and which were subsequently destined to acquire a 

 character of more general application from the eluci- 

 dation afforded by the various collections of M. Va- 

 lenciennes*, who enriched M. Edwards's Memoir with 



* M. Valenciennes, who is a member of the Institute and a 

 professor at the Jardin des Plantes, occupies in science a position 

 which is very rarely attained, for he is accepted as the chief of a 

 very important section of Zoology, even by those who are opposed 

 to him on special points, and in the estimation of his colleagues he 

 undoubtedly ranks as the first ichthyologist of the age. First as the 

 pupil, and afterwards as the assistant and collaborateur of Cuvier, 

 he commenced with him the work, entitled Histoire Naturelle des 

 Poissons, the first two volumes of which were published in 1828. 

 Six other volumes appeared before the death of Cuvier. In these 

 first eight volumes, the parts contributed by M. Valenciennes are 

 clearly defined by the signatures, which each of these two authors 

 subscribed to his own work. The portions of the work which have 

 appeared subsequently to that period are entirely due to M. Valen- 

 ciennes. It is to be hoped that the difficulties which have so long 

 retarded the completion of this great work, may soon be overcome. 

 Having been admitted from early youth to the intimate acquain- 

 tance of Cuvier and of Humboldt, and being consequently brought 

 into immediate contact with the great founders of modern science, 

 M. Valenciennes was not likely to limit his studies to the external 

 forms of animals. Both in his great work, as well as in all his 

 Memoirs, we find that the anatomical history, is always conjoined 

 to the external description of the animal. Several researches on the 

 incubation of serpents, on the respiration of fishes, and on the 

 minute structure of the tissues, &c., have moreover amply shown 



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