THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 385 



When 46, he met for the first time a young and enthusiastic 

 collector of beetles, William Spence. The two became fast friends, 

 and three years later was born the idea of a popular introduction 

 to their favourite pursuit. This was in the year 1808, and it 

 shows how great examples serve to 



" inspire posterity. 

 Fathering their kind, from son to son;" 



for it was in 1808 that news had come to them of the death of the 

 great Fabricius. 



The "Introduction" consists of a series of letters written in 

 delightful style, the more remarkable that both authors were 

 learned in every branch of the science and profoundly read. They 

 brought to their task the ripe experience of years of active observa- 

 tion and cpllection, and during nearly 20 years of planning and 

 publishing, they ransacked whole libraries of British and foreign 

 literature. 



The letters were originally in four volumes: Vol. I dealing 

 largely with Injuries and Benefits due to Insects, but treating 

 also such interesting topics as Metamorphoses, Care of Young, 

 Food, and Homes; Vol. II chiefly taken up w^ith Insect Societies, 

 but including letters on Weapons, Movements, Emission of Sound 

 and Light, Hibernation, and Instinct; Vols. Ill and IV were syste- 

 matic and supplementary; these ceased to be reprinted after the 

 sixth edition, and Vols. I and II came to constitute the now world- 

 famed Introduction. 



And what a transformation it effected! Just look before and 

 after. A little over a century before, and the sanity of Lady 

 Glanville had been hotly impugned by British lawyers and the great 

 naturalist Ray dragged to court to testify that the lady, though 

 indeed a collector of Lepidoptera, was not insane. 



In the first decades of the 19th century ignorance was wide- 

 spread and prejudice strong against entomology; but the "Intro- 

 duction" changed all that, and in a preface to the sixth edition 

 (1843) the authors (Kirby, now an octogenarian) could congratulate 

 themselves on the removal of this public reproach. Moreover, a 



