PREFACE. xvii 
dices which prevail on this subject. ‘‘Old impressions,” as Reau- 
mur has well observed, “are with difficulty effaced. They are 
weakened, they appear unjust even to those who feel them, at the 
moment they are attacked by arguments which are unanswerable ; 
but the next instant the proofs are forgotten, and the perverse 
association resumes its empire.” 
The Authors do not know that any curiosity will be excited to 
ascertain what share has been contributed to the work by each of 
them ; but if there should, it is a curiosity they must be excused 
from gratifying. United in the bonds of a friendship, which, 
though they have to thank Entomology for giving birth to it, is 
founded upon a more solid basis than mere community of scientific 
pursuits, they wish that, whether blame or praise is the fate of their 
labours, it may be jointly awarded, All that they think necessary 
to state is, that the composition of each of the different depart- 
ments of the work has been, as nearly as possible, divided between 
them ; that though the letter, or series of letters, on any particular 
subject, has been usually undertaken by one, some of the facts and 
illustrations have generally been supplied by the other, and there 
are a few to which they have jointly contributed; and that 
throughout, the facts for which no other authority is quoted, are 
to be considered as resting upon that of one or other of the 
authors, but not always of him, who, from local allusions, may be 
conceived the writer of the letter in which they are introduced, as 
the matter furnished by each to the letters of the other must 
necessarily be given in the person of the supposed writer. 
In acknowledging their obligations to their friends, the first 
place is due to Simon Wika, Esq. of Costessey near Norwich, to 
whose liberality they are indebted for the plates which illustrate 
and adorn the work, which have been drawn and engraved at his 
expense by Mr. Joun Curris, whose intimate acquaintance with 
the subject has enabled him to give to the figures an accuracy 
which they could not have received from one less conversant with 
the science.” 
* This refers to the year 1815, when the first volume of this work was pub- 
lished, In the twenty-seven years since elapsed, Mr, Curtis's Entomological 
labours, and especially his British Entomology in sixteen volumes, equally 
admirable for its scientific and artistical excellence, have deservedly gained him 
4 very high reputation wherever the science is cultivated, (1842.) 
n 
