2S8 Butterjiy Collectwh Vade Mecum, 



he touches upon familiar topics, or cites a poet ; yet maintains 

 the dignity of science, and manages to mingle instruction 

 with pleasure by means of the hitherto impracticable vehicle 

 of specific descriptions. * C^ 



Art. II. Catalogue of Works on Natural History, lately published^ 

 with some Notice of those considered the most interesting to British 

 Naturalists, 



Britain. 



Anon. Attributed to Miss Laetitia Jermyn of Ipswich : The Butterfly Col- 

 lector's Vade Mecum ; with a Synoptical Table of British Butterflies, 

 Ipswich and London. 12mo, 5 plates. 7^. 6d. 



This " Account of British Butterflies " is dedicated to the Rev. W. 

 Kirby (p. 20.), and stated there and in the advertisement to be " enriched 

 by his accurate and valuable remarks," which, to all who have perused 

 Kirby and Spence's Entomology, will be a sufficient guarantee and recom- 

 mendation of Miss Jermyn's work. 



After stating the improvements which the edition of 1827 has received, 

 some of the attractions of this pleasing branch of natural history are no- 

 ticed. " Although the study of every class of animals is most indisputably 

 attended with peculiar advantages, yet it may safely be affirmed, that it is 

 from the knowledge of the characters, metamorphoses, and various modes^ 

 of life which insects are destined to pursue, that a more intimate acquaint- 

 ance may be obtained with the laws of Nature, and veneration for the great 

 Creator of all, than can be derived from the contemplation of any other 

 class in the animated world. Whilst most animals retain, during life, the 

 form which they receive at their birth, insects are distinguished by the won- 

 derful changes they undergo. Their existence partakes of two, three, and 

 four distinct states, and, in each of these, differs most essentially in appear- 

 ance, organisation, and manner of living. It is in this class of animals, also^ 

 above all others, that we are struck with what Cicero has called ' the insa- 

 tiable variety of nature.' " (p. 7.) 



The whole of the preface is so much to our mind, that we cannot deny 

 ourselves the pleasure of extracting largely from it. 



In answer to the charge of inhumanity sometimes brought against the 

 collectors of living animals, it is argued that the objection applies less in the 

 case of insects than in that of the higher classes; because "it is an admitted 

 hypothesis that, in proportion as we descend in the scale of being, the sen- 

 sibility of the objects that constitute it diminishes ; " and that the poet's 

 conclusion that a beetle, trod on, feels " a pang as great as when a giant 

 dies," is incorrect. Why, Ray asks, were insects arrayed in beauty, and 

 surrounded with wonders, but that we might be led to glorify the hand 

 that made them ? " If,* says Gedner, * we do not think it worth our 

 while, for any other reason, to turn our attention to the works of nature, 

 yet surely, for the glory of the great Creator, we ought to do it ; since, in 

 every insect, we may observe some singular artifice which is not to be found 

 in any other bodies, and which fully demonstrates the omniscience of the 

 Supreme Being who has created nothing but for a certain end, and for some 

 valuable purpose.' (p. 9.) 



" Can it be necessary," asks Miss Jermyn, " to declaim on the superiority 

 of a people amongst whom intellectual pleasures are preferred to animal 



