286 Remarks on a Work entitled 
XLVII. Remarks occasioned by the publication of a Work 
entitled “Insect Life.” By J.W. Dovenas, Esq. 
[Read March 2, 1846.] 
Tue phenomena of insect life are so various and wonderful, and 
we are so ill able to account for many of them, that whatever pro- 
fesses to throw a new light thereon is worthy of some attention. 
I have therefore thought it right to bring under the notice of the 
Society the ideas contained in a book lately published by Dr. 
Badham,* and presented to this Society by the author ; and I am 
the more induced to do this, that I have neither seen any notice 
of it in the reviews, nor heard any mention of it here, and it might 
appear that Entomologists tacitly acquiesced in the startling no- 
tions it contains. I wish this notice had fallen into abler hands, 
but it will I trust have the effect of exciting observation and 
discussion, that thereby the truth,—the great end of the natura- 
list’s researches,— may be ultimately elicited. To avoid misre- 
presentation I shall give the author’s own words, adding a few 
remarks as I proceed. 
The book opens with some observations on the difficulty that 
exists, where the forms of animal and vegetable life converge, of 
pointing out the characters by which they may be referred to their 
respective kingdoms, showing that neither in structure, want or 
power of motion, food, modes of increase, chemical constitution, 
nor sensibility, is the distinction to be found. It is said, “ the 
possibility of fixing any limit between the two kingdoms presup- 
poses that the highest order of plants is lower than the lowest 
specimen of animal life; whereas to the careful observer, the 
scheme of nature does not present a graduated scale, on which 
every class is necessarily higher or lower than the next, there 
being many living productions which, while on several grounds 
they bear a strong analogy to the animal world, are yet in other 
respects (such as complexity of organization or variety of function) 
lower than ferns or lichens, or even than some of the pheneroga- 
mic classes. When indeed we arrive at less questionable exam- 
ples, wherein may be traced the substance of one order and the 
machinery of another, the voluntary motion of this tribe and the 
irritable tissues of that, co-existent in all their completeness, every 
* « Tnsect Life,” by David Badham, M.D., late Radcliffe Travelling Fellow 
of the University of Oxford; F.R.C.S. London; M. Ent. Soc. France.  W. 
Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1845. 
