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BY DR. H. FPJPP. 



B.ead at the General Meeting ^ March 2ndf 1876. 



ALTHOUGH it cannot be supposed that every member of our 

 Naturalists' Society should take as great an interest in 

 descriptions of insect structure as might be felt by a student of 

 anatomy or entomology, I would fain hope that the subject may 

 still prove sufficiently attractive to be received with some degree of 

 favour even by a general audience. "Were any special plea needed 

 in defence of insect anatomy, I might fairly urge that insects are 

 of infinite service and profit to man, or that they force themselves 

 on his attention by becoming at times a plague to him or that they 

 exemplify the most curious life-habits, and present, in many 

 instances, the most beautiful objects in nature; and I might add 

 that an interest is quickly acquired in any subject by becoming 

 better acquainted with it. Against all such arguments, however, 

 the objection prevails that ''we cannot all do everything;" and 

 this applies more forcibly in our own busy age than in any 

 preceding one. And where all are so busy that very few care to 

 turn aside from their own pursuits, or from other pressing interests 



