Suites a Buffon. 569 



was fifteen years of age.* We doubt not but that it will be admit- 

 ted by all to bear honourable testimony to his diligence and success. 

 For ourselves we can affirm, that we have not of late often met with 

 a work on natural history conceived in a sounder spirit, and execut- 

 ed with so much judgment and discrimination. Every one who 

 studies this elegant tribe of insects, must have long felt the want of 

 such a publication. No general description of species has appeared 

 since that of Godart, forming a part of the Encyclopedic Melhodique. 

 That valuable and elaborate production, however, is not adapted to 

 the present state of the science, multitudes of new species having 

 been discovered since it was written, and numerous improvements 

 effected in the mode of arrangement. 



The task which Dr Boisduval has undertaken is by no means an 

 easy one. Latreille has somewhere asserted that a good classifica- 

 tion of the Lepidoptera is the touchstone of systematists. The dif- 

 ficulty arises from the want of prominent characters. It is easy to 

 distinguish numerous groups by a certain peculiarity of aspect and 

 similarity of design in the colouring, but no sooner is an attempt 

 made to define them in a rigorous manner, than it is found that re- 

 course must be had to characters of very subordinate importance, al- 

 most always minute, and of difficult application in practice. This 

 uniformity of organization among the Lepidoptera, results from, or oc- 

 casions, the uniformity that exists in their mode of taking nourish- 

 ment. The nectar of flowers and the juices of vegetable matter 

 form their only food. There is no need, therefore, for that variety 

 of structure observable in tribes, (the Coleoptera for example,) which 

 are destined to live on almost every kind of organized substance, 

 from the hardest ligneous tissue to a semifluid animal matter. 



The difficulties in the way of a lucid arrangement inherent in the 

 subject, can scarcely be said to have been diminished by the mode in 

 which it has been handled by many modern naturalists. The nume- 

 rous " Illustrations" of Lepidoptera published of late years have been 

 partial, being either selections from the whole class, or forming part 

 of a local Fauna. In either case the subject is regarded in too insu- 

 lated a light. The illustrator of foreign butterflies selects a species, 

 and by giving prominence to all its minute characters, proposes it 

 with considerable plausibility as a distinct genus. The local faunist 

 divides his groups in reference to his own limited sphere of observa- 

 tion. Neither contemplates the possibility of being ever called upon 

 to elaborate a general system, and he leaves it to those who are to re- 



* Preface to Species General. 



