OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 47 



consumption ; and that it was necessary that this insect, 

 which there was reason to believe was common in every 

 part of the world, should be administered in a recent 

 state. Would he not be anxious to proclaim the happy 

 discovery to sufferers in all quarters of the globe ? As 

 his remedy would not admit of transportation, he would 

 have no other means than by describing it. Now the 

 question is, whether, on the supposition that no system" 

 of Entomology existed, he would be able to do this, so 

 as to be intelligible to a physician in North America, for 

 instance, eager to administer so precious a medicine to 

 his expiring patient? It would evidently be of no use to 

 say that the specific was a beetle : there are thousands 

 of different beetles in North America. Nor would size 

 or colour be any better guide : there are hundreds of 

 beetles of the same size and the same colour. Even the 

 plant on which it fed would be no sufficient clue; for 

 many insects, resembling each other to an unpractised 

 eye, feed on the same plant ; and the same insect in dif- 

 ferent countries feeds upon different plants. His only 

 resource, then, would be a coloured figure and full de- 

 scription of it. But every entomologist knows that there 

 exist insects perfectly distinct, yet so nearly resembling 

 each other, that no engraving, nor any language other 

 than that strictly scientific, can possibly discriminate 

 them. After all, therefore, the chances are, that our 

 discoverer's remedy, invaluable as it might be, must be 

 confined to his own immediate neighbourhood, or to 

 those who came to receive personal information from him. 

 But with what ease is it made known when a system of 

 the science exists! If the insect be already described, 

 he has but to mention its generic and trivial names, and 



