PARK AND CEMETERY. 
61 
THE FAUNA OF THE CATACOMBS OF PARIS. 
M. Armand Vire, in an article on the Catacombs 
of Paris in La Nature, writes as follows on this 
gruesome subject: It must not be thought that these 
sombre galleries are completely void of inhabitants; 
not that anybody lives there habitually, nor do I 
refer to the 6,000,000 dead whose fleshless bones 
repose peacefully in these vaults. There is a cate- 
gory of beings scarcely visible unless closely sought, 
which creep, run, fly, walk and breed far from the 
light of day. Tney are generally insects, centipedes, 
Garymarus puteanus, (blind). 
little crustaceans, which are curious to study from 
the fact that the absence of light produces modifi- 
cations, atrophy of certain senses and exaggerations 
of others. Generally speaking, they are a transi- 
tion between the species which live in the light and 
those of natural caverns. Color has disappeared; 
they are completely white. Coloring matter de- 
pends immediately on light, and as the Chlorophyll 
of plants disappears in darkness, so the color cells 
of these creatures disappear or waste away. How- 
ever, certain kinds of creatures, notably the coleop- 
tera, appear more rebellious to discoloration. 
In some the eyes are present, black, normal in 
appearance, although the light of a lighted candle 
brought near them fails to make them budge, while 
the heat from it does; in some only a pallid dot is 
seen, in others an integument covers the place where 
the eye should be. 
On the other hand, in some the sense of hearing 
is very acute, the least noise causing retreat; micro- 
scopic examination reveals the organs of hearing to 
be located in the antennae or feelers, which have ac- 
quired truly extraordinary proportions. 
In others it is an auditory system which is pre- 
sented, and we see pores or feathery filaments de- 
veloped in a very curious fashion. Lastly, in others 
the sense of touch is conveyed through a marvelous 
system ot simple or bifurcated filaments, spread 
over the whole body, which appears to be a won- 
derful means of suggesting food or avoiding danger. 
In the Campodes, rarer it is true in catacombs 
than in caverns, we find the antennae extended to 
two or three times the normal length. The rear 
forks are tapering and equally elongated. Their 
organs of touch are developed to a maximum, and 
they bristle with little stiff, pointed hairs, termi- 
nated by spheres buried in the integument. One 
would call it a long pincushion full of pins. An- 
tennae and forks act for all purposes, touching the 
soil, feeling the wind, and it is only when every- 
thing appears tranquil outside that the creature is- 
sues from its sinuous den, wherein it feeds quietly 
on the cryptogames, which afford it nourishment. 
Podurelles, with red eyes or without eyes, in- 
habit all the old mushrooms, and hop from all sides 
like white fleas. Uncolored worms creep over the 
earth, while active beetles, still colored, provided 
with little eyes, but already covered with long touch 
hairs, like their brethren of the cavern, run over 
the earth, and spiders of all kinds, often blind, lay 
their snares for invisible flies. 
White centipedes attain a length of almost two 
and one-half inches, and feed upon old wood. 
The waters are equally alive. Innumerable in- 
fusoria swim in all directions, clinging to the sand 
or other debris, while the agile cyclops, blind or 
provided with red eyes, swims rapidly and feeds on 
the infusoria. Often he is the prey of Ganimarus 
puteanus , a long white shrimp, with or without ru- 
dimentary eyes, with many well-developed organs 
of sensation, and which also devours the pretty 
Asellus of the subterranean fountains. 
Finally it is not uncommon to come across in 
old wood some blind Pseudoscorpion exercising his 
curious shaggy members. 
Thus the subterranean fauna of Paris is rich and 
varied. It is more than a zoological problem. What 
is its origin, and how long does it take to effect such 
singular modifications? A mystery not solved, but 
nearer solution in that a special laboratory is about 
to be attached to the museum in the catacombs 
themselves. 
Sackkingen, in Baden, Germany, will erect a mon- 
ument to Scheffel, the student poet, whose “ Tompeter 
von Sackkingen” made the town famous. 
* * * 
Cremation is more extensively practiced in Italy than 
in any other country. The first crematorium was estab- 
lished in Milan in 1876, and there are now fifty in 
operation in Italian territory. 
