184 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Meteorology. — In the four weeks ending on the ioth 

 of July the mean temperature was 58 4', which is 

 just about the average. 



The rainfall in these four weeks was only o - 22 

 collectively (about 25 tons to the acre) ; this was a 

 great deficiency, as the average rainfall for this month 

 is about 206 tons to the acre. 



The average temperature of August in London is 

 63 ; on the coast it is about one degree less. 



The average rainfall for August in the south of 

 England is about 3 inches. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 

 MUFFET'S THEATRUM 1NSECTORUM. 



[Continued from p. 159.] 



W r E now come to the last class of books, in which 

 we include all those giving accounts of indi- 

 vidual species. Naturally the insects taken most notice 

 of are the bees, and therefore we find frequent allu- 

 sions to them among the writers of the various countries 

 of Europe. Beginning at home, Thomas Hill, in his 

 work on gardening,* has a chapter on bees ; in 

 Spain, Torres fills an octavo on the keeping of bees.f 

 Some time previously, in Germany, Stanhuff devoted 

 a whole quarto to the habits of bees, and the 

 allegories suggested by them. % Silkworms also, 

 on account of the practical value of the silk they 

 produced, claimed some attention, and accordingly 

 we find Serres § at Paris and London, Libanus || 

 in Germany, and Tellier ^ in Paris again, pub- 

 lishing works on their history and culture ; and in 

 London in 1609, an anonymous writer fills a large 

 volume with the history of the mulberry tree and 

 the silkworm.** At this time also the ants obtained 

 a small treatise on their history by Jerome Wilde ; ft 

 Aristotle's theory about wasps was confuted in a 

 work by Cagnatus, %% a naturalist of Verona ; and a 

 curious volume was published a little later by an 

 anonymous writer. §§ Last, but not least, was Jacob 



* A Bricfe Treatyse of Gardenynge ; teaching the apt dressing, 

 sowing, and setting of Gardens, with the remedies against such 

 beastes, wormes, fiyes, etc., that commonlye annoye gardens. 

 To this is annexed the maruelous gouernement, propertie, and 

 "benefite of the Bees, with the rare secret of honey and of the 

 waxe ; in 4to, London, 1574, etc. 



f Tratato de la cultivacion y cura de las colmenas ; in 8vo, 

 Alcala, 1586. 



X Orat. de principiis proprietatibus apium et allegoriis quae in 

 harum contemplatione occurrunt -. in 4to, Vittenb., 1556. 



$ La Cueillette de Is Soie pour la nourriture des vers qui 

 la font ; in 8vo, Paris, 1599. 



|| Historia Bombycum.in 8vo, Franckf., 1599. 



IT I. Brief discours concernant la maniere de nourrir les vers a. 

 soie; in i2mo, Paris, 1602. 2. Memoires et Instructions pour 

 l'establissement des muriers et l'art de faire la soie en France 

 (with figures) ; 4to, Paris, 1603. 



** Instructions for the increasing of Mulberry Trees and the 

 breeding of S ilkworms, and the making of Silk in this King lorn ; 

 in 4 to, London, 1609. 



•ft De Formica liber unus, 8vo, Ambergae, 1615. 



++ Variorum Observationum libri iv. in 8vo, Romre, 1581, 

 and other editions. 



$} Laus Publicis in vino se suffocaturi versiculis anacreontis 

 inclusa ; in i2mo, Schleus, 1631. 



Hoefnagel's book, called "Various Illustrations of 

 Flying Insects, illustrated most accurately from 

 life." * This book — which has no letter-press, and 

 which in the copy in the British Museum forms part 

 of a larger work on Natural History generally, — is 

 certainly well described by the latter part of its title, 

 for the clearness of the figures is a most conspicuous 

 feature. The part on insects contains fourteen plates, 

 and was published at Frankfort A.D. 1630. 



We must now turn our attention again to the MSS. 

 left by Thos. Muffet. According to A. Wood, in 

 his " Athenae Oxonienses," a few imperfect copies of 

 the " Theatrum " were published by Laur. Scholzius 

 in 15985 but of these I can find no mention elsewhere. 

 Be that as it may, they were imperfect copies, and 

 only one or two were printed, so the MSS. practically 

 lay by idle until they came into the hands of Sir 

 Theod. de Mayerne, who published them at London 

 in 1634, under Muffet's orignal title of " Insectorum 



SIVE MINIMORUM ANIMALIUM THEATRUM." Thus 



we see, with the appearance in print of this book, 

 Conrad Gesner's writings on insects at last saw the 

 light of day, about a century after their origin, and 

 after passing through many vicissitudes, having 

 changed hands as many as five times. Such was the 

 struggle this our study went through in its early days. 

 Thomas Muffet has well been called the father of 

 Entomology, and certainly he did a great deal for 

 this particular branch of Natural Science, for his 

 book is most comprehensive, containing as it does a 

 history of each order of insects, and recapitulating 

 everything that had been discovered on the subject 

 previously. We must remember also, that to compile 

 a work like Muffet's was no light task in his day ; it 

 would no doubt require endless research in numerous 

 foreign libraries to obtain the various authors he quotes 

 from ; for books, as we know, were very few and far 

 between in those times, very different from our own, 

 when we can get almost any volume we may desire 

 in our large public libraries. Muffet enters most 

 thoroughly and heartily into his work, he is not 

 content merely to record the few bare facts he could 

 glean from previous authors concerning the different 

 species of insects, as other writers had done before, 

 but in each case, by means of his own and his friends' 

 observations, he strives to arrive at a practical reason 

 and definite use for all the phenomena he observes. 

 True, his conclusions may not have been entirely 

 correct, but even then they formed a basis from 

 which subsequent investigators could start with 

 additions and corrections, till at last the amount of 

 certain knowledge which we possess at the present 

 day has been arrived at. I may here mention a 

 statement of Muffet's which, though a gross error, 

 speaking generally, has had a long-lived reputation. 

 He says that when the pupa changes into the imago, 

 the head of the pupa becomes the tail of the imago, 



* Diversas Ir.sectorum volatilium Icones, ad vivum accura- 

 tissime depictae ; in 4W, Francofurti ad Magnum. 



