82 THE BROWN TAIL MOTH. 



of the entomologist, then confessedly in a state 

 of infancy in this country, were looked upon with 

 more respect, and we have no doubt contributed in 

 an eminent degree to the advancement of the 

 science. 



" The attention of the public," says Mr Curtis, 

 " has of late been strongly excited by the unusual 

 appearance of infinite numbers of large white webs, 

 containing caterpillars, conspicuous on almost every 

 hedge, tree, and shrub, in the vicinity of the metro- 

 polis ; respecting which advertisements, paragraphs, 

 letters, &c., almost without number, have appeared 

 in the several newspapers, most of which, though 

 written with a good intention, have tended greatly 

 to alarm the minds of the people, especially the 

 weak and the timid. Some of these writers have 

 gone so far as to assert, that they were an usual 

 presage of the plague ; others, that their numbers 

 were great enough to render the air pestilential, 

 and that they would mangle and destroy every 

 kind of vegetable, and starve the cattle in the fields. 

 From these alarming misrepresentations, almost 

 every one ignorant of their history has been under 

 dismal apprehensions concerning them. 



' ' Some idea may be formed of their numbers from 

 the following circumstances : In many parishes 

 about London subscriptions have been opened, and 

 the poor employed to cut off and collect the webs at 

 one shilling per bushel, which were burned under 



