THE COASTS OF SAINTONGE. 279 



when they are drawing in their nets, and thus allow 

 the whole haul to fall back into the sea. To enable 

 the Branchellion to live with impunity upon the 

 body of the Torpedo its organisation must render 

 it insensible to electrical action, so as to allow this 

 worm, which varies from an inch to an inch and a 

 half in length, to resist the force of discharges which 

 shake even the strongest man. 



The Branchellion, which was first discovered by 

 Rudolphi *, was classed by Savigny f among the 



* Rudolphi, professor and director of the Museum at Berlin, is 

 justly regarded as the founder of Helminthology. He has devoted 

 almost all his life to the study of the Intestinal Worms. His principal 

 works on this subject are entitled Entozoorum sive vermium intesti- 

 naliurn historia naturalis, and Entozoorum Synopsis, which will always 

 serve as a point of departure for researches of this nature. 



f Savigny, a member of the Institute, was born at Provins in 

 1777, and died at Versailles in 1851. Destined for the clerical 

 profession, he commenced his studies in the College of the Orato- 

 rians, where he showed such aptitude for learning, that his teachers 

 predicted for him a successful career in the church, but the Revolu- 

 tion changed the destiny of Savigny. At the age of sixteen, he 

 came to Paris to attend the classes of the Ecole JVormale, and he then 

 lodged in a garret in the Rue Copeau. He soon, however, made 

 himself known by several memoirs on botany, in consequence 

 of which he was appointed professor at the Ecole Centrale of Rouen. 

 At this time, however, Bonaparte was organising his expedition for 

 Egypt. Cuvier, who appreciated the talents of Savigny, recom- 

 mended him for the post of zoologist in association with Geoffrey 

 Saint-Hilaire, and when he hesitated, on the plea that his studies had 

 hitherto been of a different nature, Cuvier replied to him: " Partez, 

 vous serez zoologiste quand vous voudrez." 



Savigny justified this confidence both by his zeal and by the 

 number and value of his researches. Having been commissioned to 

 collect and study the Invertebrate animals, he not only traversed 

 the whole of Egypt, but he advanced as far as possible along the 

 coasts of the Red Sea, to observe the marine species which it 



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