Source note

LAVRILLE, famous naturalist, employed in the Jardin des Plantes, and dwelling on rue de Buffon, Paris, 1831. Consulted as to the shagreen, the enlargement of which was so passionately desired by Raphael de Valentin, Lavrille could do nothing more than talk on the subject and sent the young man to Planchette, the professor of mechanics. Lavrille, "the grand mogul of zoology," reduced science to a catalogue of names. He was then preparing a monograph on the duck family. [The Magic Skin.]