SOCIKTIES. 57 



ology, indeed, cannot be said to have been much studied till the 16th 

 century, when attention was a good deal devoted to it. It was not, 

 however, before the 17th century that much progress was made, or any 

 important works on the subject were published. In a ver}^ interesting- 

 paper read before our Society by one of our members, Mr. Willoughljy 

 Gardner, April, 1880, entitled " The Eise of the Literature of Entom- 

 ology," and which was published in Science Gossip, the author called 

 our attention to a volume, Tlieatruni Insectorum, written in Latin, ])\ 

 Dr. Thomas Muffet, and piiblished in London, a.d. 1634, in the reign 

 of Charles I. Mr. Gardner, in calling our attention to this volume, 

 informed us that it was the first work ever published on all Orders of 

 insects as a separate volume. He was careful to state that several 

 works had been written prior to this, treating of insects among other 

 things, but this work of Muffet's was the first published on all Orders 

 of insects. It was most carefully compiled, 406 authors, a list of whose 

 names are given, being referred to. The work may indeed be said to 

 be a complete record of everything previoiasly known on the subject. 

 Amongst others conspicuous in the 1 7th century, when much progress 

 was made, were John Ray, born 1627, and his pupil Francis Willoughby. 

 Some idea may be gathered of the progi-ess Entomology has made since 

 Eay's time, when it is stated that about the end of the 17th century, 

 Eay estimated the whole number of insects in the Avorld at 10,000 

 species, while Dr. John Davy, in 1853, estimates them at 250,000. 

 W. F. Kirby, in his Text Book of Entomology, 1885, estimates the 

 number of known British species as 12,600, and in the world, 220,000. 

 In 1889, Dr. Sharp and Lord Walsingham's estimate reach nearly 

 2,000,000, whilst Professor Eiley, in his new work just puldished at 

 Washington, 1892, entitled Directions for Collecting and Preserving 

 Insects, considers this estimate extremely low, and that 10,000,000 

 would be nearer. He arrives at this conclusion by stating that species 

 have been best worked up in the most temperate parts of the globe, 

 whilst in the more tropical portions a vast number of species still 

 remain to be characterised and named, and that if we take into con- 

 sideration the fact that many portions of the globe are yet unexplored 

 entomologically, it is safe to estimate that not one-fifth of the species 

 extant have yet been enumerated. In this view of the case, the species 

 in our collections, whether described or undescribed, do not represent, 

 perhaps, one-fifth of the whole. In other words, there are 10,000,000 

 species of insects in the world, and this, Professor Eiley says, is, in his 

 judgment, a moderate estimate. The popular estimation of Entomology 

 in Eay's time may be gathered, when it is stated that the will of Lady 

 Glanville was disjjuted on the ground of insanity simply from her love 

 of insects. Moses Harris gives an account of this in his Aurelian, 

 pviblished in 1779, and scijs : — " The Fly, MeJitcva cinxia, the Glanville 

 Fritillary, took its name from the ingenious Lady Glan^dlle, whose 

 memory had liked to have suffered from her curiositj'. Some relations 

 that were disappointed by her will attempted to set it aside by acts of 

 lunacy, for they suggested that none but those who were deprived of 

 their senses would go in pursuit of butterflies. Her relations and 

 legatees subpoened Dr. Sloan, founder of the British Museum, and 

 Mr. John Eay, to support her character. The last-named went to Exetei", 

 and at the trial satisfied the judge and jury of the lady's laudable in- 

 quiry into the wonderful works of Creation and established her will." 



