Sect. I.] Zoology, 157 



sufficiently comprehensive, and, in a due degree, mi- 

 nute in its distinctions. He distributed all insects 

 into seven orders, i^ik'mg the distinctive marks from 

 variations in the structure of the wings, or the en- 

 tire absence of these organs. While the great 

 Swede vi^as engaged in these inquiries, Reaumur \ 

 of France ; Lyonet, of Holland j and Bonnettf, of 

 Geneva, also distinguished themselves by their ro 

 spective publicacions in entomology; and, though 

 with different relative merits, decidedly improved 

 upon all who had gone before them. 



In this department of zoology also, within the 

 period which we are considering, Drury and Do- 

 novan of England; Geoffi'ey of France; FabriciusJ, 

 of Denmark; De Geer, of Sweden; and, latest of 

 all, Olivier §, of France; have laboured with great 

 diligence and success. With respect to the dific- 

 rent degrees of honour due to these celebrated na- 

 turalists, it is not easy, within small limits, to state 

 them with precise justice. The best judges seem to 



* Rene Antoine Fcrckault de Reaumur was born at Rochelle in 

 l683, and died in 175/. Kis History of Injects, in 6 vols 4to, 

 is certainly one of the greatest works of the age in which he lived. 



t Charles Bonnett was born in 1/20, at Geneva, where he 

 died in 1793. He was one of the most distinguished men of the 

 eighteenth century. His*inquiries and publications on Insects and 

 the Vermes are greatly esteemed, and have been much celebrated 

 anaong naturalists. 



X Fabricius formed a new system essentially different from that 

 of Linnaeus. He efhiploys, for the foundation of his arrangement, 

 the diversities in those parts of the organisation witli which in- 

 sects take their /oof/. — ^The arrangement of Linn«us is commonlf 

 preferred, especially in Great Britain j but that of Fabricius hss 

 many admirers on the continent of Europe. 



§ Of Olivier' s work it is not easy to speak decidedly, as it ii 

 yet in an unfinished state. 



