XV11. 



was likewise the author of a little work, without a date, entitled " An Essay, 

 preceding a Supplement to the Aurelian, wherein are considered the tendons 

 and membranes of the wings of butterflies," in which he ingeniously gives 

 a method of arranging the Papiliones into natural families, from the differ- 

 ance of structure observable in the nerves of their wings. 



In 1781, appeared, in English and French, "The Genera Insectorum of 

 Linnaeus," exemplified by various specimens of English insects, drawn from 

 nature. This was the first work which made known, by figures, the system 

 of Linnaeus on insects, and the various genera which it contained. 



About this period, William Curtis, a celebrated botanist, published " An 

 Essay on the Brown-tail Moth," " Instructions for Collecting and Preserving 

 Insects," and a " Translation of the Fundamenta Entomologist of Linnaeus/'' 

 illustrated with copperplates and additions, and to which is prefixed a chrono- 

 logical catalogue of entomological authors; this latter was published in 1772. 

 In 1785, Matthew Martyn published at Exeter, "The Aurelian's Vade 

 Mecum," containing an Knglish alphabetical and Linnaean systematical cata- 

 logues of plants affording nourishment to butterflies, hawk moths, and moths 

 in the caterpillar state, collected from various authors. 



If we turn again to the Continent, we find that in 1766, flufnagel pub- 

 lished descriptions of butterflies and moths in a Berlin magazine ; but as they 

 are poor even for the age, they have been ignored by all the greatest entomo- 

 logists as being injurious to science and likely to be misunderstood. Pallis' 

 descriptions in 1771 are likewise bad. We next come to the celebrated De 

 Geer, who united in himself the highest merit of almost every department of 

 that science. Both as a systematist, an anatomist, and physiologist, and as the 

 observant historian of the manners and economy of insects, his " Memoires 

 pour servie it T Historic des Insectes " is above all praise. His system is 

 contained in a posthumous volume published in 1778. 



We are now arrived, if its consequence be considered, at one of the most 

 important epochs of the science. Fabricius, a pupil of Linnseus, who highly 

 estimated his entomological acquirements, thinking that the system of his 

 master was not built upon a foundation sufficiently fixed and restricted, con- 

 ceived the idea of doing for Entomology what the latter had done for Botany. 

 As the learned and illustrious Swede had assumed the fructification for the 

 basis of his system in that science, so the emulous and highly gifted Dane, 

 observing how happily those organs were employed as character in extricating 

 the genera of vertebrate animals, assumed the instruments of mastication, 

 far more numerous and varied in insects, for the basis of a new system of 

 entomology, which from the maxillae being principally employed to charac- 

 terise th order, may be called the Maxillary System. 



