356 Observations on Madame Merian^s 



remarks which I have been able to make on the value and 

 interest of her figures, during my residence in a country similar 

 to that in which her collections were formed. 



We can never sufficiently admire the zeal of this female 

 votary of the sciences, who, quitting the comforts of her home, 

 sought for two years the gratification of her curiosity in a far 

 distant land, under a burning sun, and in an unwholesome 

 climate : her book, however, abounds with errors, against 

 which the naturalist of Europe should be always upon his 

 guard. At the period in which it was issued from the press, 

 1726 (according to Kirby, an edition seems to have been 

 published as early as 1705), it was considered a splendid and 

 valuable addition to the libraries of the learned ; and it con- 

 tinues still to be admired, from the size of its showy plates, 

 and the beauty of the subjects depicted, though the state of 

 entomological engraving in 1 726 was very imperfect ; and the 

 figures are sadly deficient in that minuteness of detail which 

 is indispensable. 



Its principal value seems to me to consist in the figures of 

 larvae and pupae. Much fault is to be found with the absurd 

 position of many of the figures, and the very great inaccuracy 

 of others : indeed, it is difficult to imagine how they could 

 have been prepared, unless they were sketched from memory. 

 The grand defect of the work is the introduction of idle stories, 

 related to her by strangers. The " paucis solum exceptis, 

 quae ex ore Indorum percepta junxi," go far to destroy that 

 confidence which would naturally be given to a patient ob- 

 server of nature. Linne, and some others of the older writers, 

 have been led to give very inapplicable names to various 

 species of Lepidoptera, taken from the plants on which they 

 are falsely represented to have fed. 



I shall pass on to notice the plates, which are 72 in 

 number, and at the end of each note will say something 

 as to the value of the figure of the plant introduced. The 

 plates are preceded by one of those fimciful and useless 

 frontispieces which were formerly thought indispensable in 

 an illustrated work, and which occupied, to no purpose, the 

 time and labour of the engraver. Here the fair author is 



it is entitled, " Observations on Naticina and Dentalium, two Genera of 

 Molluscous Animals," p. 29., and consists for the most part of technical 

 descriptions and notices of systematic affinities; two Dentalia are figured. 

 This remark is given in the paper : " I have transmitted a drawing and de- 

 scription of the typical species of Naticina to my friend Mr. Swainson, 

 who has promised to insert many of my drawings of West Indian shells in 

 his beautiful work, entitled * Zoolo.cncal Illustrations.' "1 



