INTRODUCTION. 



DEFINITION AND COMPASS OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



1. 



NATURAL HISTORY has for its object the inquiry into the being of 

 natural bodies and their thorough investigation in reference to their 

 various qualities, and the relative functions of their component parts. 

 Understood in this extent, it presents us with a distinct unique entirety, 

 which treats the natural body as complete, but gradually perfected ; 

 and at the same time seeks to discover the means whereby it attained 

 its completion and perfection. Natural History, therefore, is no mere 

 description of form, no description of nature, as it has been, latterly, 

 very 'incorrectly considered, but a true, and pragmatical history, 

 developed from its own fundamental principles. 



ENTOMOLOGY is that branch of this extensive science, which treats 

 of the Natural History of Insects. 



Insects are animals with articulated bodies divided into three chief 

 portions, the head, thorax, and abdomen ; they have three pairs of legs, 

 and generally two pairs of wings, and, to acquire this structure, pass 

 through several transformations and changes, called their metamorphoses. 



The object of Entomology, consequently, is to investigate the nature 

 of insects ; its design is to show how the insect is organised and formed, 

 and why it was obliged to adopt this particular conformation and internal 

 structure; and when this is accomplished, it proceeds to the generalisa- 

 tion and development of the various vital phenomena observable in the 

 class. Its view is, however, not limited here to show the mere gene- 

 ral form of the body of the insect, but it also displays how this general 



B 



