ENTOMOLOGY. 



ITS RELATIONS TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS ADVANCEMENT- 



With brief Instructions for Collecting, Preserving ayid Studying Insects. 



[The following is an amplification of an article iDublislied by me in Campbell's 

 New Atlas of Missouri, I incorporate it with this my Fifth Report at the suggestion 

 of members of the Board and others, who thin]< that something of the kind will form 

 a desirable prelude to tlie Keport proper. Judging from the letters of inquiry which 

 reach me day by day, especially with reference to the collecting, preserving and study- 

 ing of insects, interest in the subject of Entomology is fast increasing in Missouri and 

 the other Western State?, and the demand for elementarj'' knowledge Increases pari 

 passu with the interest manifested. Already in our sister State of Illinois, teachers in 

 the public schools are required to be qualified to instruct in the natural sciences, and 

 natural knowledge is receiving more nearly its due in the schools of our own and of 

 other States, and in the agricultural colleges. It is my desire that Entomology receive 

 its share of attention, and, so soon as leisure permits, I hope to prepare a manual for 

 the special use of these schools, and of which the following prodrome is a mere 

 outline.] 



DEFIXITION OP ENTOMOLOGY. 



It would seem almost superfluous to define the meaning of this 

 word ; but from the many letters that come to me addressed " State 

 Etymologist," it is evident that there are those who yet imagine that 

 my office is somehow or other connected with philological science. 

 For the benefit of such, then, Entomology is derived from the Greek, 

 (evTo/jov, insect; /'.«;'»?, discourse,) and constitutes that branch of Natu- 

 ral Science which treats of Insects. 



WHAT, THEN, IS AN INSECT ? 



The term " Insect" is derived from the Latin insectttin., which sig- 

 nifies "cut into," and expresses one of the chief characteristics of this 

 class of animals ; but we can only obtain an intelligent idea of what 

 constitutes an insect by comparison with other animals. 



