100 THE ANATOMY OF A CATERPILLAR.

brated artist WVandcleer undertook to engrave
them ; but being preoccupied with numerous other
engagements, he delayed from time to time the
fulfilment of his promise. Impatient to seo go
important a work completed, Lyonnet determined
to try his skill, and having obtained from the artist
an hour’s lesson in engraving, he then produced, as
his first attempt, the eight last plates in that famous
treatise, which are as admirable for the delicacy as
for the correctness of their execution. Encouraged
by his success, he now resolved to apply the talent
he had thus discovered himself to possess for the
illustration of his own scientific researches. He
hesitated for some time before he finally decided
to undertake the investigation of a subject which
he believed would exhaust any other patience than
his own. This was the anatomy of one single
caterpillar,—that which infects the wuilow-tree,
and Which is so common in Holland (Phalena
cossus of Linneeus).

In his hands this became a unique work ; and no
sooner did his book, describing and fliourine it,
make its appearance to the world, than it was jm-
mediately ranked among the most surprising che/s-
dcewvres of human industry. It wasa quarto volume
of more than 600 pages, adorned with 18 plates.
The author here exhibited all the parts of this
ininute animal with the utmost detail and exact.

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