BONNET 291 



Hydra, for example, is a link between plants and 

 animals, the snails and slugs connect moUusks and 

 serpents (!); flying fishes connect ordinary fishes and 

 land vertebrates ; the ostrich, bat and flying fox connect 

 birds and mammals. 



PIEREE LYONET 



1707-1789 



Traits Anatomique de la Chenille qui ronge le bois de Saule. 4to. The 

 Hague. 1760.1 



The Larva of the Goat-moth 



The Traite Anatomique is perhaps the most laborious 

 and beautiful example of minute anatomy which has 

 ever been executed. All the details of structure are 

 given with extraordinary fidelity. The dissection of the 

 head of a caterpillar is a feat which will never be sur- 

 passed. Nearly the whole interest of the volume lies in 

 the plates, for the text is little more than a voluminous 

 explanation of the figures. 



It is not without surprise that we find that Lyonet 

 was an amateur, who had received no regular training 

 either in anatomy or engraving, and that he had many 

 pursuits besides the delineation of natural objects. He 

 came of a French Protestant family, driven out of 

 Lorraine by the tyranny of Louis XIV, was brought 

 up for the Protestant ministry, turned to the bar, and 

 finally became cipher-secretary and confidential trans- 

 lator to the United Provinces of Holland. He is said to 

 have been skilled in eight languages. His first published 

 work in natural history consisted of remarks and drawings 

 contributed to Lesser's Insect Tlieology (1742). About 



1 Copies dated 1762 have a plate representing the miorosoope and dissecting 

 instruments used by the author. 



