A NOTICE 



OF 



IvIRBY AND SPENCE, 



THE ENTOMOLOGISTS. 



The Rev. William Kirby, and William Spence, Esq., are certainly 

 two of the most eminent entomologists of the present day. Indeed, 

 previous to the publication of the " Introduction to Entomology, or 

 Elements of the Natural History of Insects," which, as most of our 

 readers are aware, was their joint work, their favourite science was 

 regarded, both by the vulgar and a vast majority of the learned, as 

 ti-ifling and futile in the highest degree. Nay, the time was, when a 

 Lady Glanville's will was attempted to be set aside on the ground of 

 lunacy, merely because she had evinced an extraordinary fondness for 

 collecting insects ; and Ray had to appear at Exeter, on the trial, as a 

 witness of her sanity. Chiefly owing to the authors of the " Introduc- 

 tion," however, Entomology now divides the empire of Nature with 

 her sister Botany. 



The former ridicule which in this country had been thrown upon 

 the science in question, principally arose from the want of a more 

 popular and comprehensive Introduction, than was to be found in the 

 English language. While elementary books on botany had been 

 multiplied in every shape, Curtis's translation of the Fundamenta En~ 

 tomologicE, published in 1772; Yeats' Institutions of Entomology , 

 Avhich appeared the year after; and Barbut's Genera Insectorum, which 

 came out in I78I — the two former in too unattractive, and the latter 

 in too expensive a form for general readers — there were no other 

 works professedly devoted to this subject, in our literature. 



Convinced that this was the great obstacle to the spread of ento- 

 mology in Britain, the authors of the " Introduction" resolved to do 

 what was in their power to remove it, and accordingly laid open to 

 their countrymen a mine of knowledge and of pleasure, new, bound- 

 less, and inexhaustible. In order to accomplish this purpose, they did 

 not content themselves with merely giving a translation of one of the 

 many works on the subject extant in Latin, German, or French, add- 

 ing only a few obvious improvements. This would have been an 

 easy affair, but a most unsatisfactory contribution to science. In the 

 technical department of entomology, there existed, previous to Kirby 

 and Spence's labours, much confusion — the same name sometimes 

 applied to parts anatomically different, and different names to parts 



VOL. IV. a 



