VI INTRODUCTION. 



si periit, periit et cognitio rerum;" and without names, how can 

 any one communicate to another the knowledge he has acquired 

 relative to any particular fact that he may have observed, either of 

 physiology, habit, utility, or locality*? Is he upon the discovery 

 of an injurious or useful property belonging to any species of whose 

 name he chooses to remain in ignorance, to give a detailed descrip- 

 tion thereof when he wishes to develop its qualities? Such an 

 antiquated proceeding, at this period, would doubtless tend to dis- 

 parage the science, and to justify the appellation of a zoological 

 writer, who terms the study of insects "specious idlenessf !" But 

 as this subject has been fully discussed by others, I shall merely 

 add that it appears to me very great advantage must accrue from 

 having all natural objects distinguished, and as far as possible by 

 appropriate names. 



The arrangement I have adopted, though obviously defective, 

 appears to me more consonant to Nature in its details than any 

 that has hitherto been promulgated : but my very limited acquaint- 

 ance with exotic groups will inevitably lead me into several errors, 

 as every attempt to classify the productions of a limited spot must 

 necessarily be extremely imperfect, especially the first. 



With reference to one of the alterations from the Latreillian 

 system which I have published in my " Illustrations," it has been 

 truly remarked " that no good sj/stem ought to be disturbed without 

 solid reasons :" it is therefore merely necessary to show the imper- 



* The following anecdote admirably illustrates the value of a knowledge 

 of nomenclature, especially of synonymy : — Two individuals, residing up- 

 wards of two hundred miles apart, in the course of tlieir correspondence 

 communicated to each other the intelligence that their respective collec- 

 tions had received tlie accession of two specimens oi Acltatia piniperda 

 (part ii. p. 87.); one of them calling the insect by the name of JN'ocfwa 

 piniperda, the other by that of Bombyx spreta. This was followed by a re- 

 quest on the one part to exchange one specimen of the fonner for one of 

 the latter, whereby each cabinet might be mutually benefited by the ad- 

 ilition of a new species ! The result (as may be anticipated) was far from 

 satisfactory ; the two specimens, after the exchange was ratified, proving 

 to be of the same species ; one party having sacrificed a fine and beautiful 

 example, reared from the larva, for an injured one captured by mothing, 

 and both parties having been put to some expense without obtaining their 

 object. 



f In the Monthly Epitome for February 1825 are some remarks upon 

 this point, contained in a notice of Professor Kidd's anatomy of tlie Gryllus 

 gryllotalpa, Linne (Gryllotalpa vulgaris, p. 303.), which tend to show the 

 feeling of literary persons regarding tlie study of loology, in which, con- 

 cernedly do 1 add, the writer is supported in his illiberal sentiments by 

 the learned editor, who seems, in the warmth of his zeal for his own fa- 

 vourite pursuit, to imagine that all sciences should succumb to the hyper- 

 critical acumen of the elocutionist ; and that the study of enunciation is of 

 infinitely more imjiortance than an insight into tlie structure of the won- 

 derful and multifarious wolk^ of the divine Creator and disposer of all 

 tbings. 



