20 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



this we should be guilty of presumption, and of attempting to take the 

 government and direction of things out of the hands of Providence : but 

 this is a very weak argument, which might with equal reason be adduced 

 to prove that when rats and mice become troublesome to us, we ought not 

 to have recourse to dogs, ferrets, and cats to exterminate them. When 

 any species multiplies upon us, so as to become noxious, we certainly have 

 a just right to destroy it, and what means can be more proper than 'those 

 which Providence itself has furnished ? We can none of us go further or 

 do more than the Divine Will permits ; and he will take care that our 

 efforts shall not be injurious to the general welfare, or effect the annihila- 

 tion of any individual species. 



Again, with regard to insects that are employed in medicine or the arts, 

 if the apothecary cannot distinguish a Cantharis or blister-beetle from a 

 Carabus or Cetonia, both of which beetles I have found mixed with the 

 former, how can he know whether his druggist furnishes him with a good 

 or bad article ? And the same observation may with still greater force 

 apply to the dyer in his purchase of cochineal, since it is still more difficult 

 to distinguish the wild sort from the cultivated. There are, it is probable, 

 many insects that might be employed with advantage in both these depart- 

 ments ; but unless Entomology be more generally studied by scientific 

 men, who are the only persons likely to make discoveries of this kind, than 

 it has hitherto been, we must not hope to derive further profit from them. 

 It seems more particularly incumbent upon the professors of the divine art 

 of healing to become conversant with this as well as the other branches of 

 Natural History ; for not only do they derive some of their most useful 

 drugs from insects, but many also of the diseases upon which they are 

 consulted, as we shall see hereafter, are occasioned by them. For want of 

 this kind of information medical men run the risk of confounding diseases 

 perfectly distinct, at least as to the animal that causes them. It would be 

 a most desirable thing to have professors in each branch of Natural History 

 in our universities, and to make it indispensable, in order to the obtaining 

 of any degree in physic, that the candidate should have attended these 

 lectures. We may judge from the good effects that the arts have derived 

 from the present very general attention to Chemistry how beneficial would 

 be the consequence if Entomology were equally cultivated ; and I shall 

 conclude this paragraph with what I think may be laid down as an incon- 

 trovertible axiom : That the profit we derive from the works of creation 

 will be in proportion to the accuracy of our knowledge of them and their 

 properties. 



I trust I have now said enough to convince you and every thinking man 

 that the study of insects, so far from being vain, idle, trifling, or unprofitable, 

 may be attended with very important advantages to mankind, and ought at 

 least to be placed upon a level with many other branches of science, against 

 which such accusations are never alleged. 



But I must not conceal from you that there are objectors who will still 

 return to the charge. They will say, " We admit that the pursuits of the 

 entomologist are important when he directs his views to the destruction of 

 noxious insects ; the discovery of new ones likely to prove beneficial 

 to man ; and to practical experiments upon their medical and econo- 

 mical properties. But where are the entomologists that in fact pursue 



