42 



PLATE DLV 



multitude how eafily the comforts, nay, even the very exiftence of man 

 tnay be affailed by a creature fo infignificant, had not the limits of its 

 ravages been prefcribed by Him " who wills and is obeyed "—its in- 

 trufions certainly created alarm, but did little ferious injury. 



This is no exaggerated pi&ure of the public mind on the occafion 

 to which we refer ; its alarm was fo powerful, and prevailed to fuch 

 an extent, that prayers were publicly offered up in the churches to 

 avert the calamity it was fuppofed they we>?e intended to produce. 

 The webs containing the larva? were collected in many places about 

 the metropolis by order of the parifti officers, who allowed a certain 

 price to the poor for gathering them, and fuperintended the burning 

 of them in large heaps with coal and faggots, a circumftance within our 

 own memory. At this precife period the trafil by Mr. Curtis, as 

 above related, appeared. In this memoir the hiftory, manners, and 

 propenfities of this little creature were explained, and the informa- 

 tion it afforded muft have undoubtedly contributed in an effeutial 

 manner to calm the terror before excited. Neither can we regard 

 its publication as being devoid of utility in another material refpeci, 

 It muft furely have inclined the more reflecting part of the commu- 

 nity, at leaft, to view the purfuits of the Entomologift, then confef- 

 fedly in a Hate of infancy in this country, with higher efteem than it 

 had been previoufiy accuftomed to confider them. 



" The attention of the public (fays Mr. Curtis) has of late been 

 ftrongly excited by the unufual appearance of infinite numbers of large 

 \vhite webs, containing Caterpillars, confpicuous on almoft every hedge, 

 tree, and ihrub in the vicinity of the metropolis ; refpe&ing which 

 advertifements, paragraphs, letters, &c. almoft without number, have 

 appeared in the feveral nevvfpapers, moft of which, though written 

 with a good intention, have tended greatly to alarm the minds of the 

 people, efpecially the weak and the timid. Some of thofe writers have 

 gone fo far as to affert, that they were an unufual prefage of the plague; 

 others, that their numbers were great enough to render the air pdti- 

 lential, and that they would mangle and deftroy every kind of vege- 

 table^ 



