IV 
PREFACE. 
numerous occupations did not allow him to superintend this portion 
of his treatise on animals. 
Perhaps the desire of associating my name Avith his in a work like 
this, Avhich, by the multitude of researches on which it rests, and hy 
their application, has become a precious literaiy monument of the 
age, has deceh’^ed me, and throAAm me into an enterprize beyond my 
poAvers to accomplish. The responsibility is great, and I have im- 
posed upon myself a task, in AA'hich the boldness of the plan is only 
equalled by the difficulty of its execution. To unite within a very 
limited space the most interesting facts in the history of Insects, to 
arrange them Avith precision and clearness in a natural series, to pour- 
tray Avith a bold pencil the physiognomy of these animals, trace their 
distinguishing characters Avith truth and brevity, in a way propor- 
tioned to the successive progress of the science and that of the pupil, 
to indicate useful or noxious species, and those A\diose mode of life 
interests our curiosity, to point out the best sources from Avhich the 
knoAvledge of others may be obtained, to restore to Entomology the 
amiable simplicity Avhich it possessed in the days of Linnaeus, Geoffroy, 
and of the early Avri tings of Fabricius, but still to present it as it noAV 
is, or Avith all the wealth of observation it has since acquired, yet 
Avitliout overloading it; in a Avord, to conform to the model before 
me, the Avork of M. Cuvier, is the end I have striven to attain. 
This savant, in his “ Tableau Elementaire de I’Histoire Naturelle 
des Animaux,” did not restrict the extent given by Linnaeus to his 
class of Insects; he hoAvever made some necessary ameliorations, 
Avhich have since served as the foundation of other systems. He dis- 
tinguishes Insects, in the first place, from other invertebrate animals, 
by much more rigorous characters than those previously employed — 
viz., a kfiotted medullary spinal marroiv, and articulated limbs. 
Linnaeus terminates his class of Insects Avith those Avhich are apterous, 
although most of them, such as the Crustacea and the Araneides, 
Avith respect to their organization, are the most perfect of their class, 
or are the most closely approximated to the Mollusca. His method, 
in this respect, is then exactly the inverse of the natural system, and, 
by transporting the Crustacea to the head of tlic class, and by placing 
almost all the Aptera of Linnaeus directly after them, Cuvier rectified 
the method in a point Avhere the series Avas in direct opposition to the 
scale formed by Nature. 
In his Lecons d' Anafomie Comparee. the class of Insects, from 
Avhich he noAV separates the Crustacea, is divided into nine orders, 
founded on the nature and functions of the organs of manducation, 
the presence or absence of wings, their number, consistence, and the 
