ENTOMOLOGY. 165 



an eclipse, they completely hide the sun. But this is not all. 

 These immense multitudes, when they have destroyed 

 everything about them, die ; and their decomposing car- 

 cases often produce the plague. One hundred thousand 

 men have been swept off in Africa in one season, and 

 nearly a million of men and beasts in Italy, by this cause. 



The insignificance of the animals belonging to this 

 class, prevents many from engaging in the study. A 

 senseless worm, say some, is unworthy the attention of 

 man. Other objects should occupy his thoughts. Nobler 

 pursuits should claim his precious time. 



Others, alive to sensibility, at once shrink from a pur- 

 suit which to them appears cruel in the extreme, and thus 

 suppress an inclination which might prompt them to be- 

 come benefactors to their fellow-men. 



MOTIVES TO THE STUDY OF THE SCIENCE. 



Ought we not to remember with gratitude, such 

 animals as are hourly removing from around us, the causes 

 of uneasiness or the elements of disease 1 Should we 

 avoid the medicinal plant, satisfied as we may be of its 

 value, on account of its fetid, nauseating smell, one of its 

 principal characteristics, which renders it discoverable by 

 all ? Should we not rather regard it the more for disclo- 

 sing its nature to us, at our first meeting, while as yet we, 

 are strangers'? 



I have said that the inconveniences suffered from these 

 animals deter many from examining them. What stronger 

 argument, I would ask, can possibly be offered, why our 

 attention should be directed to any subject than this 

 that by our ignorance of it, we are made to suffer ; and 

 that in proportion to our knowledge, are not only our in- 

 conveniences lessened, but our pleasures increased t 

 This very circumstance, which is urged as an objection, 

 prompts many a cultivator of the soil to become an ento- 

 mologist ; and thus he is enabled, not only to prevent the 

 injuries which would have occurred to his own harvest> 

 but also to render an essential service to thousands, who 

 had previously suffered with him. If our persons are the 

 objects of attack, additional motives exist. Not only will, 

 our ill-founded fears, as to the increase and ravages of any 



VOL i. NO. vn. 15* 



