CLASS V. INSECTS. 305 



worms or amphibia ; with both which, before the time of 

 Linnaeus, they were frequently blended and confused, 

 though they differ as essentially as mammalious animals 

 from birds. Every insect is furnished with a head, an- 

 tennae or horns, and feet ; of all which the vermes (or 

 worms) are destitute. All insects likewise have six or 

 more feet ; they respire through pores on the sides, called 

 spiracles ; and their skin is extremely hard, and serves 

 them instead of bones, of which latter they have inter- 

 nally none. The antennae, however, placed on the fore- 

 part of the head, constitute the principal distinctions of 

 insects from worms and amphibia. These organs are 

 jointed and moveable in every part, in which they differ 

 from the horns of other animals ; and they are supposed 

 to convey some kind of sense : but we have as little 

 correct knowledge of what nature this sense is, as a man, 

 blind from his birth, can be supposed to have of the 

 action of light on the eye, or of the impression which is 

 made from this cause on the mind. But that they are 

 the organs of a particular sense, is apparent from their 

 perpetual motion ; yet the hard crust with which they are 

 invested, and their shortness, in flies and other insects, 

 would induce us to believe them not to be the organs of 

 touch ; and accordingly a naturalist, who has written a 

 learned treatise on the science, supposes them to consti- 

 tute or contain the organs of hearing. 



Besides the antennae, the head also, the trunk, the 

 proboscis, the feelers, the breast, the belly, the limbs, 

 the tail, and the wings, are particularly to be regarded 

 by the entomologist. Various terms of art are likewise 

 to be learnt which are used to express the differences and 

 positions of the wings ; but, as they are all borrowed 

 from the Latin, they would afford little information to 

 common readers ; and the learned will readily find them 

 in the works of Linnaeus. Indeed, in our language, or at 

 least in our dictionaries, are very few English names for 

 insects themselves. The figures of many of them are 

 familiar to us ; but we have only a few distinctive names, 



