Jump to content

Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 22.djvu/563

From Wikisource
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
SKETCH OF HENRI MILNE-EDWARDS.
547

ure for all the studies in that grand division of the animal kingdom"—that M. Blanchard became acquainted with him, and it was of this period of his career that that friend said, in his presentation speech: "At that time much was said of your discoveries on the organization of marine animals, and of your researches on the littoral of France. . . . Generally, naturalists have studied marine animals in the cabinet; you were of the opinion that it would be better to observe them on their domain, in the actions of their life. The learned world applauded."

In 1834 he made a journey to Algeria, and on his return presented to the Academy several memoirs on the marine animals of the African coast, and also one on the changes in the color of the chameleon. His researches on the Polyps, the results of which were published in 1838, were begun at this time, and continued with the co-operation of M. J. Haime.

In 1839 he published a work on the Ascidians, prepared after investigations at St. Vaast la Hogue and Nice, and passed several months at Roscoff in making observations on the blood-circulation of the Annelids. In 1841 he published a special work on the Acalephs, Spermatophores, Cephalopods, and Eolidians. In 1844 he went to Sicily with MM. de Quatrefages and E. Blanchard, on a mission the scientific results of which were embodied in a work in three volumes, the first of which contained the account of his studies on the circulation of the mollusks. On his return from this journey, he was appointed a professor in the Faculty of Sciences in Paris, in place of M. E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, in a position to which he had already been inducted as a substitute in 1838, while he had also been appointed Professor of Natural History in the Museum, in place of V. Audouin, in 1841. It is of this period that M. Blanchard said in his eulogy: "You became professor in the Museum, and found me assistant naturalist to the chair to which all the votes designated you. I have forgotten nothing of that time from which nearly forty years now separate us. One thought ruled you, dear master, that of giving a strong impetus to our science. You excited to research by your example; by your counsel, you indicated to young naturalists the ways they should pursue. Desiring to make explorations in the warm parts of the Mediterranean littoral, you took M. de Quatrefages and myself to Sicily. We returned from there with a harvest. You brought a new light to science: you showed for the first time how certain vital functions are performed when the organic apparatus are still in a condition of relative imperfection. You were able in a short time* to furnish a thousand proofs that the sign of the highest perfection of organisms is given by the division of physiological labor. You were still young, Monsieur Milne-Edwards, but you were already saluted as a master and recognized as a chief. Witnesses of that epoch, now becoming a little rare among us, recollect how, everywhere that science was in honor, interest was taken in