94 
DEATH OF AUDOUIN. 
The value of these collections and manuscripts cannot be appreciated except 
by those who have studied them. For myself, who have long enjoyed the friend¬ 
ship of this distinguished Entomologist, and by whom I was allowed uncontrolled 
liberty of examining these precious collections I hesitate not to say that were his 
manuscripts published, naturalists would not hesitate to place Audouin in the 
same rank as Reaumur: as it is, justice cannot be accorded to his merits, although 
the numerous Memoirs which he from time to time published sufficiently indi¬ 
cate the correctness of this statement, which might otherwise be deemed the 
remark of a person too favourably impressed with the talents of a now lost friend. 
These memoirs exhibit in the highest degree the spirit of observation, surprising 
sagacity, indefatigable patience, and a fixed determination to acquire a complete 
knowledge of the subjects of his investigation. The concise list which I have 
added, of these memoirs, at the end of this article, will sufficiently show the 
peculiar genius of M. Audouin. 
By those who enjoyed a personal acquaintance with Audouin, will his loss be 
most severely felt. In their memories will long survive his deep-searching 
remarks and precision of observation. In our rambles together on the banks of 
the Rhine and Seine, his conversation struck me as resembling a mine of practical 
intelligence; and his tact in seizing upon the peculiarities of the objects which 
presented themselves to our notice was most extraordinary. 
The non-publication of his manuscripts offers, in fact, a complete clue to 
Audouin's character; namely—a constant and too ardent desire to obtain fresh 
stores of knowledge, rather than a determination to occupy any of the present 
time in preparing for publication facts, the knowledge of which he had already 
acquired. 
M. Milne Edwards excellently expresses this characteristic in the observation 
which he made in his discourse at the tomb of Audouin :—“ Cette surexcitation 
de Intelligence succedant a une surexcitation du coeur” (occasioned by circum¬ 
stances unconnected with Entomology) “devait avoir des suites funestes” Most 
sad indeed has been the suite. Surrounded by an attached familyf and a circle 
of devoted friends, and at a time when his researches were about to be given to 
the world, he died of apoplexy, induced by indisposition, contracted during a 
journey to the South of France, undertaken in his official capacity to investi¬ 
gate the natural history of the insects which infest the olive plantations,—a 
martyr to his favourite science. 
Funeral orations -were delivered at his tomb by M. Serres, President of the 
Academy of Sciences; M. Chevreul, Director of the Museum of Natural History; 
M. Edwards, Member of the Institute and President of the Philomatic Society; 
and by M. Blanchard, Assistant Entomologist at the Jardin des Plantes. I un¬ 
derstand from M. Gervais that his collections have been transferred to the Jardin 
des Plantes, and that his library (exceedingly rich in detached entomological 
articles, and most liberally opened to the entomologists of Paris) will most pro¬ 
bably be sold by auction. 
The vacant professorship at the Jardin des Plantes has been conferred on M. 
Milne Edwards. 
* A number of statements derived from these manuscripts and collections add considerable 
interest to my Modern Classification of Insects, in which I have published notices of them. 
7 * He married a daughter of the cider and sister of the younger Brongniart. 
