270 Report on M. PercJieron's Bibliographie Entomologique. 



title of their works, the date of their publication, and, where that was 

 practicable, a notice of the period and the place of the birth and death 

 of these naturalists. Unfortunately these simple indications contain no 

 abridged notice of the contents of these works, and are unaccompani- 

 ed with critical observations, yet such additions are of great interest 

 on account of the judgments which they embrace. 



After this first part of the work, which forms nearly three-fourths 

 or a volume and a half, the author has drawn up a table of the ar- 

 ticles in the order of the subjects and chronology ; this is divided 

 into chapters. The first comprehends the names of the authors who 

 have written on insects, but under certain points of view only, such 

 as the damages they may occasion, which our author names their 

 nocibility ; then in relation to their utility in agriculture, in the arts, 

 in medicine, or in the general economy of nature, regarded in a philo- 

 sophical manner. The second chapter indicates the books which 

 treat of insects in regard to their general natural history, zoological 

 or entomological. It is here that we find inserted travellers, museo- 

 graphers, micrographers. The third and last chapter makes us ac- 

 quainted with the works which have treated of insects exclusively, 

 such as memoirs relating to the formation and preservation of ento- 

 mological museums ; the generalities of their modes of life and meta- 

 morphoses ; special works on the anatomy, physiology, and classifica- 

 tion of insects ; such as contain only observations on their different 

 countries ; and finally, all the works which have treated of the orders 

 in particular, whether relating to aU the genera, or those of some par- 

 ticular country, or such productions as have appeared under the 

 title of monographs. Such is the order in which the name of every 

 author is here inserted and repeated according to the date of publi- 

 cation. 



We cannot disguise the fact, that the execution of this Bibliographie 

 still leaves something to be desired, for we have remarked in it seve- 

 ral important omissions, and we find books and memoirs inserted 

 which have no relation to insects. However, the work may be of great 

 benefit to entomologists : it will no doubt greatly facilitate their re- 

 searches, and really promote the ulterior progress of the study of 

 that branch of natural history.* 



* Comptes rendus Hebdomadaires des Seances de V Academic des Sciences, 6th 

 February 1837. 



