190 BARON WALCKENAER ON THE INSECTS 



Second Section. 



Determination of the species of insects known to the ancients and 

 moderns, by which the vine is infested, and indication of the means 

 of preventing their ravages. 



I. Preliminary Remarks. — In the first part of these researches, I 

 examined the ancient texts in which the names of insects injurious to 

 the vine occur, taking the authors in chronological order whenever 

 this plan did not destroy the relations of etymology or derivation 

 existing between the words the signification of which was to be deter- 

 mined. This method appeared to me the only one adapted to the 

 attainment of the end which I proposed. 



All languages vary, and, like the people by whom they are spoken, 

 experience the eflfects of time, revolutions, and custom. Various con- 

 temporary writers employ the same words in different senses, either 

 because they do not possess the same degree of knowledge of the 

 things designated by them, or because they differ from each other with 

 respect to the intention with which the terms in question are employed ; 

 one writer being required to limit his meaning to one simple, special, or 

 rigorous sense, and another, on the contrary, having in view a figura- 

 tive sense only, or a vague or general notion. 



The examination of all the texts in which the same word is employed, 

 has furnished us with the signification, more or less determinate, which 

 each author attached to the word, and also with the different circum- 

 stances and particulars contained in each text relative to the insect 

 named, which consequently may serve as means to distinguish it. 



We have been careful to recapitulate the various significations which 

 result from our critical examination of each word; to comjoare the 

 imperfect notions of the ancients with the more precise knowledge of 

 the moderns ; it will therefore only be requisite to recall to our minds 

 the result of each of these examinations, without being perplexed, in 

 this last and difficult investigation, by philological discussions. Should 

 we be forced to commence new inquiries of this nature, it will only be 

 with regard to words which offer matter for curious or useful digres- 

 sions, and not in relation to those which essentially belong to the sub- 

 ject of which we are treating. 



But it will not here be re(|uisite to follow the same oi'der of discus- 

 sion which we thought it necessary to adopt in our first section. We 

 are not now endeavouring to determine the significations given by each 

 author to a certain word, independently of its real sense, but to ascer- 

 tain that real sense from the various significations that have been 

 ascribed to the word, and the difierent api)lications which have been 

 made of it. Thijigs, not words, are now the subjects under considera- 



