OF I?TS£CTS IN GENERAti JJl 



frtuhd Upon the fmall excrefcences of plants and trees, he 

 found himfelf obliged to confer a vivifying power, a kind 

 of foul upon thofe vegetables where they were found, and 

 has laid afide the ordinary mode of generation, which in 

 other inftances he had laboured to eftablifh. 



S'-joanlmerdam was the contemporary of Rhedi; and, 

 like him, he pofTefled the courage to examine nature^ and 

 to think for himfelf. This naturalift made many anato- 

 mical obfervations upon infects, which after his death 

 ■were publiftied at Ley den *, and laid the foundation of 

 future improvements in entymology. About the fame 

 period, Madcnne Minnanne, a Dutch lady, contributed 

 largely to bring the hiftory of infects into requeft, by the 

 beauty of her paintings and drawings. After having ex- 

 ecuted elegant drawings of feveral of the infe£ls of Ew 

 rope, from a fingular avidity for thefe lludies, fhe was 

 prompted to crofs the Atlantic^ and give paintings of thofe 

 in America. HaviHg redded for feveral years in Surinam 

 in South America, Ihe returned to Europe with exquifite 

 drawings of many of the fplendid infe£ls of that conti- 

 nent, which were afterwards engraved and publillaed in 

 Holland, about the end of laft century f . 



Goedart is another of the firfl authors who adorned the 

 hiftory of infefts with the labours of the pencil. He 

 paid great attention to the metamorphofes of the animals, 

 and has painted many of them in the feveral forms which, 

 they allume, from their appearance till their death. His 

 work was originally publifned in German., very badly ar- 



VoL. III. S f ranged j 



• In the year 1737, under the title of Biblia Naturse. 

 f Her original drawings were purchafed by Sir Hans Sloanc, and atf 

 aew in the Britifli Mufcum. 



