24 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 
not one of the most important literary undertakings be the compilation of 
more perfect dictionaries, and would not the humblest contributor to such 
an end be deemed most meriteriously engaged? Now precisely what.an 
accurate dictionary of a particular language is towards enabling the world 
to participate in the discoveries published in that language, is a system of 
Entomology towards enabling mankind to derive advantage {rom any 
discoveries relative to insects. A good system of insects, containing all 
the known species arranged in appropriate genera, families, orders, and 
classes, is in fact a dictionary, putting it within our power to ascertain the 
name of any given insect, and thus to learn what has been observed re- 
specting its properties and history, as readily as we determine the meaning 
of a new word ina lexicon. In order to impress upon you more for- 
cibly the absolute need of such a system, I must enter into still further 
detail. 
There is scarcely a country in which several thousand insects may not 
be found. Now, without some scientific arrangement, how is the observer 
of a new fact respecting any one of them to point out to distant countries, 
and to posterity, the particular insect he had in view? Suppose an ob- 
server in England were to find a certain beetle which he had demonstrated 
to be a specific for consumption; and that it was necessary that this 
insect, which there was reason to believe was common in every part of 
the world, should be administered in a recent state. Would he not be 
anxious to proclaim the happy discovery to sufferers in-all quarters of the 
globe? As his remedy would not admit of transportation, he would have 
no other means than by describing it. Now the question is, whether, on 
the supposition that no system of Entomology existed, he would be able to 
do this, so as to be intelligible to a physician in North America, for in- 
stance, eager to administer so precious a medicine to his expiring patient? 
It would evidently be of no use to say that the specific was a beetle : there 
are thousands of different beetles in North America. Nor would size or 
colour be any better guide: there are hundreds of beetles of the same size 
and the same colour, Even the plant on which it fed would be no suffi- 
cient clue ; for many insects, resembling each other to an unpractised eye, 
feed on the same plant, and the same insect in different countries feeds 
upon different plants. His only resource, then, would be a coloured figure 
and full description of it. But every entomologist knows that there exist 
insects perfectly distinct, yet so nearly resembling each other, that no 
engraving nor any language other than that strictly scientific can possibly 
discriminate them. After all, therefore, the chances are that our disco- 
verer’s remedy, invaluable as it might be, must be confined to his own 
immediate neighbourhood, or to those who came to receive personal 
information from him. But with what ease is it made known when a 
system of the science exists! If the insect be already described, he has 
but to mention its generic and trivial names, and by the aid of two words 
alone, every entomologist, though in the most distant region—whether a 
Swede, a German, or a Frenchman —whether a native of Europe, of Asia, 
of America, or of Africa, knows instantly the very species that is meant, 
and can that moment ascertain whether it be within his reach, If the 
species be new and undescribed, it is only necessary to indicate the genus 
to which it belongs, the species to which it is most nearly allied, and to 
describe it in scientific terms, which may be done in few words, and it 
can at once be recognised by every one acquainted with the science, 
