11 A NOTICE OF 



essentially the same, while others of primary importance were withotU 

 any name at all. And with reference to the anatomy and physiology 

 of insects, they could no where meet with a full and accurate gene- 

 ralization of the various facts connected with these subjects, scattered 

 here and there in the pages of the authors who have studied them. 



They therefore began, in some measure, de novo, to institute a 

 rigorous revision of the terms employed, making such additions and 

 improvements as seemed to be called for; and to attempt a more com- 

 plete account of the existing discoveries respecting the anatomical 

 and physiological departments of the science, than had yet been given 

 to the world. But they did not halt here ; for in the present age, when 

 the love for popular treatises is so prevalent, they felt it to be necessary 

 to conduct the student through the attractive portal of the economy 

 and natural history of the objects of the science. It is to this branch 

 that they have devoted the most considerable portion of their work, 

 bringing into one view, under distinct heads, the most interesting dis- 

 coveries of Reaumur, De Geer, Bonnet, Lyonet, the Hubers, &c., as 

 well as their own individual observations, relative to the noxious and 

 beneficial properties of insects ; their affection for their young ; their 

 food, and modes of obtaining it ; their habitations, societies, &c., &c. 



In this undertaking, which must have been one of no moderate 

 labour — a labour, too, from which any fame that could result was 

 necessarily to be very limited, and to the completion of which great 

 pecuniary outlay was inevitable — the authors of the " Introduction" 

 adopted the epistolary form of writing, because it admitted of digres- 

 sions and allusions often called for in a popular work, and because it 

 was better suited than any other for conveying those practical direc- 

 tions, which in some branches of the pursuit the student requires. 



The most alluring side of the science is first discussed, viz. that 

 which belongs to the manners and economy of insects, and where 

 there was the least room for originality. They enter more fully, how- 

 over, into the other branch, viz, that which belongs to the anatomi- 

 cal, physiological, and technical parts of the work. As far as regards 

 the general physiology and internal anatomy, they have done little 

 more than bring together and combine the observations of other 

 naturalists who have attended to these branches ; but the external 

 anatomy they have examined for themselves, through the Avhole class 

 of insects. Here they are assuredly entitled to the praise of having 

 thrown much new light upon the subject, particularly by pointing out 

 and giving names to many parts never before noticed. 



In the Terminology., or what they call the Orismology of the science, 

 the authors have introduced a great degree of precision and concin- 

 jiity — dividing it into general and partial orismology. Under the 

 former they define such terms as relate to Substance, Resistance, 

 Density, Proportion, Figure, Form, Superficies (under which are in- 

 troduced Sculpture, Clothing, Colour, &c.), Margin, Termination, In- 

 cision, Ramification, Division, Direction, Situation, Connection, Arms, 

 ^c. ; and, under the latter, those that relate to the body and its parts 

 or members, considered in their great subdivisions of Head, Trunk, 

 and Abdomen, 



