4 INTKOnrCTION. 



history which have issued from the press, in which the leech 

 mid snail, together \\itli many of the still lower animals, are 

 introduced, without even a sectional note of distinction, 

 amongst insects. 



If we look around, on every side, in even place, and in 

 e\ery season, we behold the immense profusion with which 

 nature has scattered the objects of our present meditation. 

 The earth, the water, and the air, teem with insect inhabit- 

 ants ; every vegetable supports numerous colonies; the di- 

 minutive fungus and the gigantic oak are alike subject to 

 their attacks ; and as a proof of the vast extent of the series 

 it may be added, that Saint Pierre tells us, that several hun- 

 dred different species of insects visited a small rose-tree 

 placed in the window of his study, whilst a single forest tree 

 is the abode of numerous tribes and families. In like man- 

 ner they cease not in their attacks upon animal matter, both 

 in a dead and living state ; and man himself, the lord of all, 

 is not exempt from annoyances from them. How m < 

 then, from the insurmountable difficulty resulting from the 

 almost infinite number of these creatures, is it to bespeak 

 the indulgence of the reader in attempting to lay before him, 

 in as concise a manner as possible, a sketch of the insect 

 world. It is not difficult to imagine the painful nature of 

 the researches necessary for obtaining a knowledge of the 

 internal anatomy and other peculiarities of creatures, of 

 which by far the greater portion do not exceed an inch in 

 length. And here it is that we, in the most especial man- 

 ner, discover the invaluable worth of the microscope, that 

 surprising instrument, by which the minute wonder* of 

 the creation are brought as vividly before the eye of the 

 observer, as are the wonders of the celestial sphere by that 

 other philosophical wonder, the telescope. These instru- 

 ments are now, it is true, no novelties ; hut we know 

 no more striking instances in which the powers of the 



