PREFACE. 



IN treating upon any subject at the present day, it is 

 generally the practice or wish of the author to give impor- 

 tance to his labours or the object of his investigations, by 

 impressing upon it the stamp of antiquity, from some 

 Archa3ological notice to which he can lay claim. If there is 

 any intrinsic value to be attached to ancient Bibliographical 

 notices, the author of the present Monograph is fortunate 

 in being able to call some such to his aid. 



As regards the period when Parasitic animals were first 

 created, I shall not offer an opinion, the subject being one 

 of those speculative theories which it is impossible to reduce 

 to a demonstration. Though my venerable and esteemed 

 friend, the father of British Entomologists, the Rev. Dr. 

 Kirby, has conjectured, that Parasitic Insects infesting the 

 human race, were not called into existence until after the 

 fall of Adam. " Can we," (he says), " believe that man in 

 his pristine state of glory, and beauty, and dignity, could 

 be the receptacle and prey of these unclean and disgusting 

 creatures ?''* 



If, however, we pass on to the period of the exode from 

 Egypt, we then find not only a decided reference to the 

 objects of our treatise, but an awful demonstration of the 

 fact, that Jehovah can indeed make the weak things of this 

 world to confound the mighty, and that however insigni- 

 ficant and puny these animals may appear individually, yet 

 when marshalled in countless myriads at the fiat of the 

 Almighty, as the instruments of His displeasure, they then 

 produce results the most dreadful. " And the Lord said 

 unto Moses, say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod and smite 

 * Bridgewater Treatise, vol. I. p. 13. 



