PREFACE. XI 



keener relish for physiological researches. That truth was at 

 all times eagerly sought after, a frequent correspondence with 

 the author during several years furnished suitable opportuni- 

 ties for ascertaining. 



In the science of Entomology, several meritorious efforts were 

 at this time made to illustrate the characters of the native spe- 

 cies. The Entomologia Britannica of Marsham, London, 

 1802, embraced the extensive tribes of Coleopterous Insects, and 

 in which he described many new species, and greatly elucidated 

 the characters of those previously known. In the following 

 year, Mr Ha worth commenced his Lepkloptera Britannica, a 

 work containing much Important information ; but now, from its 

 scarcity, of difficult access to the student. 



It was not to be expected in a country in v/hich such anato- 

 mists as Harvey and Tyson, and such zoologists as Wil- 

 LOUGHBY, Ray, Lister, and Sibbald had flourished, that the 

 Artificial Metliod would universally supersede the study of the 

 anatomy and physiology of animals. During this dark age, 

 one individual, John Hunter, upheld, in his own labours, the 

 dignity of the science, and left behind him a museum which, to 

 this period, is unrivalled as a display of zeal, patience, and phy- 

 siological attainment. At the same period, the University of 

 Edinburgh possessed, in Dr Monro secimdus, a comparative 

 anatomist and physiologist, anxious to inspire a taste for the 

 science in the minds of his numerous pupils, and to extend its 

 boundaries by personal exertion. 



Even among the naturalists of this country, there were always 

 a few whom the fetters of the Linnean school could not liind ; but 

 whose labours were too confined in their object, to exercise any ge- 

 neral influence on the spirit of the age. Mr Kirby, in his Mono- 

 graphiaApumAnglifC, Ipswich, 1802, set an example to his coun- 

 trymen of acuteness and patience in unfolding the structure and 

 habits of those insects to which he had directed his attention ; 

 and he has recently increased his claims to the gratitude of Bri- 

 tish naturalists, by composing, along with Mr Spence, the In- 

 troduction to Entomology. In another quarter of the island, 

 Mr Dalyell, in his Observations on PlanaricB, Edin. 1814, 

 exhibited a happy facility of investigating the habits of aquatic 



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