THE EAELY DAYS OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 163 



Duverney in charge of the conduct of the work, but for 

 some reason which is still obscure he failed to apply 

 himself vigorously to the discharge of his trust. He 

 discovered among Perrault's papers descriptions of 

 sixteen new animals, but he refraiued from publishing 

 them, and his attempt to bring out a new edition of the 

 series only resulted in the publication of the first section 

 in the year 1700. Urged by the Academy to greater 

 efforts, he undertook the preparation of a revised and 

 extended edition in 3 vols, quarto, but he died in 1730 

 before this could be accomplished. The duty was then 

 entrusted by the Academy to Winslow, Petit, and 

 Morand, who examined the papers bequeathed to the 

 Academy by Duverney, compared them with previous 

 editions, and completed their task by December, 1731. 

 They included the sixteen unpublished descriptions of 

 Perrault, and added a chapter on the Viper by Charas, 

 which had appeared separately in 1669. A fourth 

 volume based on material left by Duverney, Mery, and 

 Lahire was not completed, and Duverney' s work on the 

 anatomy of Fishes is still unpublished. 



In 1686 and 1689 Father Tachard published 

 descriptions of the two missions dispatched by the Jesuit 

 Fathers to Siarn. The fathers interpreted their mission 

 in a liberal and catholic spirit, and they supplemented 

 their sacred duties by observations on the natural history 

 of the country. Many animals were dissected on the 

 spot, and others were forwarded to Paris, where they 

 aroused the lively interest of the members of the Academy 

 of Science. In this way the Academy received in 1687 a 

 Crocodile, Tarentola \_Platydactylus~], a Camel and a 

 Tiger, and the anatomy of these animals by Father 

 Gouye is included in the edition of the memoirs we are 

 which was at length published in 



