MEMOIR OF DE GEER. C3 



with as great zeal as before. A considerable period, 

 however, elapsed (nearly nineteen years) before a 

 second volume appeared, and four others were sub- 

 sequently published at short intervals. It is said 

 that he sent a copy of each of them as a present to 

 all those who had purchased the first. The seventh 

 and last volume was not laid before the public till 

 after the author's death, an event which took place 

 on 8th March 1778. He had been for many years 

 previously afflicted with gout, and it was that disorder 

 which terminated his useful and honourable life. 

 The numerous and valuable objects in natural history 

 which he had collected, were presented by his widow 

 to the Academy of Stockholm, and the members have 

 placed a marble bust of their benefactor in that part 

 of their museum where they are preserved. 



His great work contains descriptions of upwards 

 of 1500 species of insects, a general history of their 

 manners and metamorphoses, and carefully executed 

 engravings, often highly magnified, of their different 

 states, and not unfrequently of their separate parts 

 both external and internal. These plates amount to 

 238, and being of a quarto size, they necessarily 

 afford space for the representation of an immense 

 number of objects. The contents of the first volume 

 have been already mentioned. The second opens 

 with an introductory sketch of insects in general ; 

 continues the history of moths and butterflies, and 

 includes that of bees, ephemeri, and ants. The third 

 is devoted to the description of Aphides, Cimices, 

 Notonectae, grasshoppers, crickets, dragon- files, &c. 



