140 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



show the intimate connection between agriculture 

 and natural history, it would be found in the 

 circumstances which attended the supposed ap- 

 pearance of the Hessian fly in this country ; thus 

 mentioned by Messrs. Kirby and Spence : — "In 

 1788, an alarm was excited in this country, by the 

 probability of importing, in cargoes of wheat from 

 North America, the insect known by the name of 

 the Hessian fly, whose dreadful ravages will be 

 adverted to hereafter. The privy council sat day 

 after day, anxiously debating what measures should 

 be adopted to ward off the danger of a calamity, 

 more to be dreaded, as they well knew, than the 

 plague or pestilence. Expresses were sent off in all 

 directions to the officers of the customs at the 

 different out-ports, respecting the examination of 

 cargoes : despatches were written to the ambassadors 

 in France, Austria, Prussia, and America, to gain 

 that information, of the want of which they were 

 now so sensible : and so important was the business 

 deemed, that the minutes of council, and the docu- 

 ments collected from all quarters, fill upwards of 

 two hundred octavo pages. Fortunately, at that time, 

 England contained one illustrious naturalist, to whom 

 the privy council had the wisdom to apply ; and it 

 was by Sir Joseph Banks's entomological knowledge, 

 and through his suggestions, that they were at length 

 enabled to form some kind of judgment on the 

 subject. This judgment was, after all, however, 

 very imperfect. As Sir Joseph had never seen the 

 Hessian fly, nor was it described in any entomo- 

 logical system, he called for facts respecting its 



