ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 



Philaolphia. Pa.. Novsmbbk, i9i5r 



Jemn Henri Fabre. 



A telegram from Orange, Fraace, dated October ii, 191 5, 

 published in the daily press, reads, "Henri Fabre, the entomol- 

 t»l,'i>i. is dead." 



What a life was his since Brst he saw the light at Saint- 

 l^^ns, canton of V'ezins, in the Haut Rouergue, on December 

 22, 1823! lie himself wrote of it — 



a life... not exempt from many caret, yet not very fruitful in in- 

 >iiirnt« or great vtcufitudcs, since it has been pnased very largely, in 

 csiK-tial during the last thirty years, in the most absolute retirement 

 and the contplctest siloniL 



Most absolute retirement and completest silence account for 

 mudi of his career. His positive dislike of most htmian soci- 

 ety and intercourse, his infrequent letters even to his well- 

 loved brother, his refuel to observe many of the ordinary 

 conventionalities had much to do with the obscurity in which 

 most of his life was q>ent. They explain why he remained 

 for nearly twenty years (1853-1871) assisUnt professor of 

 physics at the Lycee of Avignon without change in rank, title, 

 t>r salary, the last amounting to £64 per annum. Fortunately, 

 other sources of income became available, such as that derived 

 from the conservatorship of the Requien Museum. 



It was during the Avignon pcriotl that his entomological re- 

 searches began with the £tude sur f instinct et Its metamor- 

 phoses des Spkigitns (1856), but the first series of the Sou- 

 venirs Entomologiques did not appear until 1879. Nine others 

 followed, the tenth in 1908. An English translation of the 

 first series, entitled Insect Life Souvenirs of a Naturalist. 

 wn^ published in igoi and selections from the others have been 

 Huluded in The Life of the Spider. Social Life in the Insect 

 World, The Mason Bees, etc. Nothing more fascinating in 

 all entomok)gical literature, and at the same time free from all 

 technicility. can be found than Fabre, even though he has been 



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