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land, but also of the water, it is obvious that their remains in ai 

 fossil state must be of the greatest value in assisting us in forming 

 accurate ideas of the geological conditions of the Earth in 

 past ages. 



The investigations and publications of one of the greatest 

 living Palaeontologists, Professor Heer, of Zurich, have shewn us 

 that the study of the remains of insects and a comparison of the 

 numerical proportion existing between the Carnivorous and 

 Herbivorous species of any former period with that existing at 

 the present day between the same classes in various parts of 

 the world, will materially assist us in arriving at just conclusions 

 as to the nature of the vegetation, and even the climate 

 prevailing in former Geological epochs. The testimony 

 of so eminent a Geologist as Sir Charles Lyell to the 

 usefulness of an acquaintance -ttath fossil insects is too 

 valuable not to be here quoted. In his " Elements of Geology" 

 Sir Charles observes " that the characters of many of the insects" 

 (i.€., the fossil insects of Qilningen) "are so well defined as to 

 incline us to beheve that if tliis class of the invertebrata were not 

 so rare and local, they might be more useful than even the plants 

 and shells, in settling chronological points in Geology." 



The fossil remains of the Vertebrata, the Mollusca, the 

 Crustacea, and even the Eadiata, have all been carefully studied ; 

 but notwithstanding the evident importance of fossil Entomology 

 it is only in comparatively recent times that the inscda have 

 begun to receive attention. M. Emile Oustalet, after alluding to 

 the amount of attention bestowed on the other divisions of 

 the Animal Kingdom, observes, that although reference had 

 been made as early as the beginning of the Eighteenth 

 Century to " Entomolithes" it was not until 1839 that M. 

 BruUe, in an inaugural address to the " Faculty des Sciences 

 de Paris," called attention to the interest which might be derived 

 from the study of Fossil Insects. 



It must not, however, be supposed from the foregoing. 



