ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



259 



describe and illustrate 600,000 insects will, of 

 course, require just 1,000 times the space rc- 

 (luircd for oDO, or 1,000 octavo voluines of (ri') 

 piij;'cs each. Now, with paper of ordinary thick- 

 ness — weigliing, say 60 pounds to the ream — 

 such a volume wlicn bound occupies just two 

 inches of space on a book-shelf. Consequently, 

 to hold l,<HK)such volumes would require u length 

 of shelving slightly exceeding KiO feet ; or sup- 

 l)osing- the shelves to be I inch thick and allow- 

 ing 11 inches space between each pair of shelves, 

 the whole 1,000 volumes would just till seven 

 book-cases each feet high, and 4 feet wide. 

 Truly, this would be a snug little entomological 

 work, altogether ahead of the .Japanese novel 

 which was connnenced forty years ago, and after 

 being continued yearly at the rate of three vol- 

 umes per annum, has at length, iu the year 187(1, 

 been brought to a prosperous conclusion by the 

 sinmltaneous death of the hero, the heroine, and 

 the author I 



:ind. Our own experience is that we cannot 

 jiroper/i/ determine and describe any insect, in 

 the winged state alone, at a more rapid rate than 

 tliree species per diem. ^Ve know very well that 

 many of tlii' published ilescriptions extant have 

 been tlirown otf by autliors — cnrroile ridanio — 

 in half an liour or an hour: and we nniy tind, in 

 the Proceedings of one of our Natural History 

 Societies located not 5,()00 miles from the very 

 " Hub of the Universe," descriptions that have 

 been quite recently published, and from which 

 not one person in live hundred will recognize 

 (he insect described. What arc such descrip- 

 tions worth? Nothing at all! They are often 

 written with entii'c neglect of the preparatory 

 states, variations, or habits of the insect, and 

 instead of laboi-iously examining several dozen 

 specimens of either sex, and noting down care- 

 fully in the description every considerable varia- 

 tion that occurs in any one specimen of either 

 sex, such authors often desi-ribo from isolated 

 specimens without mciitioning the fact. In this 

 way our synonomy is nuiltiplied, and the author's 

 work is often lost to the world, as it well de- 

 serves to be, unless he is tbrtunate enough to 

 leave behind him ticketed specimens of those 

 insects he has liimself described, so that subse- 

 quent inquirers can recognize (he insect intended, 

 and give the w'orld assurance of its identity. 

 Instead of giving ns the diU'erences, whether 

 structural or colorational, that on the most dili- 

 gent search can be found to occur iu a certain 

 number of individuals, whether of the male or 

 female sex, that belong to the species, some 

 authors in describing, are in the habit of coolly 

 throwing aside all but one which they pick out 



and are pleased to call the " typical " specimen ; 

 so that such a description merely gives the indi- 

 ridiial and not the speciex. And yet such bas- 

 tard scribblings arc every day foisted upon the 

 scicntitic world — not by the ncophite, in whom 

 such a course might be pardonable, but by some 

 entomologists of experience — and in the estima- 

 tion of many a young student, he that can publisj) 

 the greatest (juantity of such trash per annum, 

 is the greatest entomologist of tli(^ day I Verily, 

 posterity will be of a difl'ercnt opinion as to this 

 matter; for, unless we are greatly mistaken, 

 such descriptions will be confined to tlie same 

 dusty immortality in which quietly repose, un- 

 disturbed by the curious fingers of all geiminc 

 naturalists, the learned lucubrations of liafin- 

 es(jue, and of other authors of that stripe. 



But let us return from this digression, which 

 was somewhat necessary to prevent our l)eing 

 accused of overstating the case, and to reli(!vc 

 the tedium caused by so nmch dry calcuhition. 

 We will assume, to be on the safe side, that it 

 requires not the third part, but only the fourtii 

 part of a day, accurately to describe an average 

 insect in its perfect or winged stage. We will 

 make no extra allowance for the time expended 

 in tracing the species through all its four stages, 

 and making sure of the fact that we are not 

 describing the egg of the bug A, the larva of the 

 bug B, the pupa of the bug C, and the winged 

 form of the bug D, as all belonging to the same 

 species, which may be either A, B, C or D. 

 Surely, therefore, when we consider that to 

 thoroughly investigate the history and figure 

 the four stages of many beetles requires from 

 one to six years, and of certain Cicadas from 

 thirteen to seventeen years, wc shall not be 

 accused of exaggeration when we assert that it 

 requires at least one entire day's hard work to 

 describe any particular insect in all its four 

 stages. On the contrary, those who have had 

 most experience, will best understand how very 

 low this estimate nnist be. Now there arc 

 6011,000 species to be thus described. Conse- 

 quently, upon the above assumption, it will 

 require .oOd,!*!)!) days to execute the work. Sup- 

 pose we allow 30(1 days as the working year of 

 a naturalist, which, though fewer than he nniy 

 sometimes have to work, is surely driving him 

 hard enough in all conscience. Then it follows 

 that, for the manuscript alone of our little Cabi- 

 net Encyclop(rdia of Entomology, there will be 

 re(|iured the labor of i,(>()6 years. Now let us 

 talk about the illustrations that will be required. 

 We have considerable personal experience in 

 this matter, and we assert unhesitatingly that 

 few artists can execute good colored drawings 



