142 HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



therefore, instead of burthening the memory with 

 the characteristic distinctions of these creatures, to 

 the neglect of matters of greater importance, he 

 recommends attention to particular genera, and 

 especially, to those which are of most frequent 

 occurrence, that a knowledge of their peculiarities, 

 food, and propagation, and the different forms they 

 assume, may be accurately obtained. 



In the first two volumes, Reaumur treats of 

 caterpillars, their changes of form into the chrysalis, 

 and this into the butterfly; about their different 

 kinds and habits, and concerning the other insects 

 which attack them, and live within them, in their 

 early stage. 



The third volume includes the description of the 

 habits of the clothes moths, and the plant-lice, or 

 aphides ; the fourth treats of gall insects and two- 

 winged flies ; the fifth contains the history of bees, 

 and the sixth of wasps and hornets. The natural 

 history of the grasshoppers, crickets, and beetles 

 was to have been written in a seventh volume, but 

 it was never completed. The published volumes 

 contain much very valuable information, and their 

 great merit consists in the wonderful care Reaumur 

 took, in investigating facts and in recording them 

 carefully and systematically. He especially studied 

 the instincts of insects, and thus brought their 

 nervous system into prominent notice, and also the 

 evident connection between the surrounding con- 

 ditions and the peculiar lives of animals. 



Years rolled on and the worthy man became 



