AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 37 1 



PRINCIPAL WRITERS ON ENTOMOLOGY. 



By Henry Meigs. 



Solomon, (work lost,) Aristotle, Hippocrates, Aelian, Demo- 

 -critus, Neoptolemus, Philistus, Nicander, Herodius, Aristamachus, 

 of Soli, wrote liis fifty years^ experience on insects, Pliny. After 

 tlie fall of the Roman empire, no more entomologists appeared 

 for several ages. Tlieu came Titus, Aetius, Alexander, Ovibasius, 

 Trallian, Paulus Aegineta, (between the fourth and seventh cen- 

 turies.) Between the ninth and twelfth centuries, we have the 

 Arabian writers Rhazes, Avicenna, Avenzoar and Averrhoes; 

 then, to the fifteenth century, a few writers, of little note, such 

 as Myrepsus,Platerus, &c.; Albertus Magnus, of 1280; Agricola, 

 in 1549, on subterraneous animals, (see Agassiz on that,) Wotton, 

 of England, folio, in 1552j Rondeletius, of Montpellier, in 1555. 

 on water insects. 



A folio, in 1559, Naples; Aldrovandus, in 1602, voluminous 

 work on insects, an indefatigable inquirer, terrestrial and aquatic 

 insects. Donovan gives him much credit. Wolfgang Freuzius, 

 1612, on insects of air, earth and water. Wilde, on ants, Rome, 

 1616. First work published in Britain on insects, 1622, quarto, 

 at Edinburgh. After many others, appeared a folio by Claude 

 Perranlt, of the French Academy. After many more, appeared 

 in 1685, Swammerdam. In 1687, the celebrated Leeuwenhoek, 

 with microscopic observations. After many more, a folio, by Sir 

 Hans Sloane, in 1707 and 1725. In 1731, a folio, by Catesby. 

 In 1735, Linnseus. In 1762, a systematic, valuable work, in 

 Paris, by Oeoffroy. In 1763, a folio, by Gronovius. After many 

 more, in 1775, Fabricius, a pupil of Linneeus. After many more, 

 in 17"92, Donovan's Natural History of British Insects. In 1793, 

 a great work on insects by Latreille, of Paris. In 1796, a valu- 

 able quarto, by Jacob Hubner, Augsburgh. In 1800, the cele- 

 brated Cuvier gave his great work, " Comparative Anatomy," 

 treating at large the organization of insects. Donovan, also 

 quarto, on the insects of India. 1802, Kirby's excellent work 

 appeared. In the same year, Thomas Marsham, the oldest of 

 British entomologists, published his valuable work. 



