INTRODUCTION. 



1. HE advantages attending the division of labour reach their 

 maximvuii wlien not only individuals devote themselves chiefly 

 to one object, but associate together for the purpose of pro- 

 moting and extending it. Thus the division of science into 

 its several branches, and the formation of separate societies 

 for the particular cultivation of each respectively, has been 

 eminently productive of benefit to all, though, perhaps, the 

 system might have worked better had the whole arranged 

 themselves under a supreme head, and become rather the affi- 

 liated members of one parent society, than have erected them- 

 selves into independent bodies. Be that, however, as it may, 

 the advance of any science towards perfection must depend, 

 not only on the number and talents of its cultivators, but 

 tilso, in no trifling degree, on their acting in concert. 



To a thorough conviction of this truth the Entomological 

 Society of London owes it« existence. Many of our most able 

 and active cultivators of Entomology were desirous of esta- 

 blishing a more familiar intercourse between their fellow- 

 labourers than had hitherto subsisted in this country, in the 

 hope that by facilitating the mutual commvmication of facts, 

 and the temperate discussion of disputed points, whether 

 theoretical or practical, the progress of Entomology as a 

 Science would be accelerated, and its utility materially pro- 

 moted. No mode appeared so likely to answer this end as 

 the formation of a Society for the purpose of holding pe- 

 riodical meetings, at which, memoirs on entomological sub- 



a 2 



