32S OF INSECTS IN GENERAi,'. 



ranged ; a new edition in Latin was afterwards given "Hy 

 Dr. Lijler^ in which many errors were corrected, and a 

 new arrangement made out by that able natural ift, who 

 lias himfelf written a valuable treatife upon the intricate 

 genus of fpiders. 



Some of thefe authors, by the extent of their labours, 

 and others by the boldnefs of their genius, had convin- 

 ced mankind that the ancients were far from attaining 

 that perfe£l knowledge of nature which they had hither- 

 to imagined. They were now fo far emboldened by the 

 progrefs they had already made, that they traded 

 to their own judgment and obfervation in examining the 

 works of nature ; and many produdlions far more judi- 

 eioas, accurate, and philofophical, were offered to the 

 public, than had ever hitherto appeared. Among the 

 firft of thefe may be ranked that of our celebrated coun- 

 tryman Mr. Kay, who had, for the greater part of his 

 life, afliduoufiy examined the economy of infe£ls. Hifi 

 Methodus InfeBo-rujn was not publiflied till after his death 

 in 171©, and may be regarded as the moil accurate and 

 concife performance on the fubje6t of entymology. In 

 the meanwhile, there appeared a numerous lift of au_ 

 thors who treated this clafs of the animal kingdom ; Al- 

 hin defcribed the infects of Knglmtdt while Sir Hans 

 Sloan, Petivert, Catcfoy, and Frijch, have detailed the 

 hiftory of vaft numbers of exotic animals of this tribe. 



In this ftate of the fcience, about the year 1754, ap- 

 peared M. de Reaumur, by far the moft laborious and in- 

 defatigable entymologitl: in Europe. Almoft in every 

 part of France this naturalift had correfpondents ftationed 

 to tranfmit him by poll defcriptions and fpecimens of 

 every curious and rare infecl that might occur : And ia 



