Daily Kennebec journal., 1913-10-03
Jean Henri Fabre.

Jean HENRI apre.
! Jean Henri Fabre is only beginning
to be known by the American reading
public. In 1901 Macmillan & Co. pub
| lished translations of some of his
writings under the title of Insect
Life" but these did not attract the at
tention they deserved. Attention
has been drawn more notably by the
Century Company's publication in 1912
of his selected writings as Social Life
| in the Insect World" and Dodd, Mead
& Co.'S publication. in 1918, The Life
of the Spider
Who is Jean Henri Fabre? You
would have some trouble in ascer-
tanning from ordinary sources. Our
later standard cycIopedias the
Americana. New International and
Century-do not even mention his
name among the several F'abres motel,
of whom YOU never heard, and most
probably will never hear But the
information is supplied in newly is
sued biography, "Fabre, Poet Of
Science" issued by the Century Com
pany. II is the work of DIR. C. v.
Legros. translated by Bernard Mall.
Here is the astounding life story of
the man who is destined to rank as the
greatest entomelogist of the last half
century-a poor French peasant. who
battled his way to an education, and
then by phenomenal persistence
opened the doors of knowledge of in
sect life to the world. The common
knowledge of nature is of its exterior
phases. He revealed a vast number
of its secrets hitherto unknown. AS
| Maurice Maeterlinck said of his work.
Most of those insects minutely des-
cribed in the vocabularies, learnedly
classified and barbarously christened,
had hardly ever been observed in real
life or thoroughly investigated in all
the phases of their brief and eyasi.e
appearances. He has devoted to sur
prising their little secrets, which are
the reverse of our greatest mysteries,
fifty years of solitary existence. mis-
understood. poor, often very near to
peunry, but lit up every day by the
joy which a truth brings, which is the
greatest of all human joys.
Few persons have any conception Of
the marveis of ordinary insect life.
even in its external features. For
example, nearly everybody knows that
grasshopper has two large COM
pound eyes, like a house fly, but Very
! few know that it also has three single
eyes, set in the middle of its fore
head; or that its ears are on the seq
ment of its abdomen. under its folded
: wings. But these are externais,
: visible to the naked eye. What Fabre
I IT. e
insects. and the still more curious
features of their anatomy and life
needs that explained their habits.
: Almost anyone has seen spider
pounce upon a fly and bite it until il
was apparently dead. Fabre learned
that usually the fly was not dead, bur
merely paralyzed by the poison thu
spider had injected into it, and was Sc
saved alive because the spider wanted
living food. Observant persons have
noted wasps carrying apparently dead
| insects, and storing them away in the
mud chambers. where they lay theii
eggs; afterward sealing them up
| Fabre showed that such insect prey
was not dead, but likewise paralyzed
and kept live for food for the larvae OF
the wasp But to do this the wasp
| must reach the nerve ganglia that are
the sources of motion, and only those
Fabre showed that it did this with tht
certainty and precision of skilled
surgeon. stinging bitten enough TO ae-
complish the exact result, and nj
more. But how could 1t do this2 HaL
it reason? Had ii an accurate knowl-
edge of the anatomy of its victim
Here Fabre establishes the line o.
demarcation between instinct and rea.
son. by showing that the operation il
always the same, whether performed
by lately hatched wasp on its frs
hunt or by an expert. There Is M
+ teaching, no progress.
+, Furthermore he established the ute
lack Of reason by showing the inabilit
) OF insects to remedy accidental inter
t ferenccs with their work, and their ex
5 traordinary Indifference to interfer
I ences. A mud wasp of some specie
. - least, will seal up the cell 1t ha
tnade for its young after the egg an
: the food prepared for the larva hav
2 been distracted. and apparently wit
tull knowledge that the cell is empt
D But even that is a trihe compared wit
: the fact that ii will seal up the plae
n where the cell was if the cell be remcv
ed. But pause to the wonders r
! know FaEre you must read his writing
or at least read this biography whic
gives SOME idea of his discoveries.
: l.. II is charming biography, as hi
: oefaplly with something Of Boswell (
tne writer, but with a subject VIII
Woui6 not talk, as DIR. johnson die
=. However, he wrote, and from his pub
hshed works as well as his letters. ID
Leeros has gathered a fund of inciden
= that brings Fabre's real life clearly /
. View a-life of SELF denial and absoiut
: devotion to his work that is seldor
!. lsdrallcled. And this with almost n
: recognition, nd apparently little desir
: Tor recognition. He did not want /
be Interrupted even by praise
:. Yet ne had what was the highe,
= praise. Pasteur came to him for II