PREFACE. 



UNE principal cause of the little attention paid 

 to Entomology in this country, has doubtless been 

 the ridicule so often thrown upon the science. 

 The botanist, sheltered now by the sanction of 

 fashion, as formerly by the prescriptive union of 

 his study with medicine, may dedicate his hours 

 to mosses and lichens without reproach ; but in 

 the minds of most men, the learned as well as 

 the vulgar, the idea of the trifling nature of his 

 pursuit is so strongly associated with that of the 

 diminutive size of its objects, that an entomolo- 

 gist is synonymous with every thing futile and 

 childish. Now, when so many other roads to 

 fame and distinction are open, when a man has 

 merely to avow himself a botanist, a mineralogist, 

 or a chemist — a student of classical literature or 

 of political economy — to ensure attention and re- 

 spect, there are evidently no great attractions to 

 lead him to a science which in nine companies 

 out of ten with which he may associate promises 



