82 THE BROWN TAIL MOTH. 
of the entomologist, then confessedly in a state 
of infancy in this country, were looked upon with 
more respect, and we have no doubt contributed in 
an eminent degree to the advancement of the 
science. 
« The attention of the public,” says Mr Curtis, 
“has of late been strongly excited by the unusual 
appearance of infinite numbers of large white webs, 
containing caterpillars, conspicuous on almost every 
hedge, tree, and shrub, in the vicinity of the metro- 
polis ; respecting which advertisements, paragraphs, 
letters, &c., almost without number, have appeared 
in the several newspapers, most of which, though 
written with a good intention, have tended greatly 
to alarm the minds of the people, especially the 
weak and the timid. Some of these writers have 
gone so far as to assert, that they were an usual 
presage of the plague; others, that their numbers 
were great enough to render the air pestilential, 
and that they would mangle and destroy every 
kind of vegetable, and starve the cattle in the fields. 
From these alarming misrepresentations, almost 
every one ignorant of their history has been under 
dismal apprehensions concerning them. 
« Some idea may be formed of their numbers from 
the following circumstances : — In many parishes 
about London subscriptions have been opened, and 
the poor employed to cut off and collect the webs at 
one shilling per bushel, which were burned under 
