2 



The Naturalist. 



know, that Aristotle, who wrote more than three centuries before the 

 Christian era, took a great deal of his information from previous 

 observers, whose names have perished, but some of whose observa- 

 tions are included in Aristotle's works ; therefore we must rest 

 content to know that some naturalists did exist so far back in time, 

 but we can only commence our list of names with Aristotle, the 

 tutor of Alexander the Great, who was born in Greece, B.C. 384. 

 This great philosopher and naturalist wrote, among many other 

 works, a " History of Animals," in which he includes all that was 

 then known relative to the history of insects. He is reported to have 

 written this book at the express desire of Alexander the Great, who 

 encouraged and supported him in a truly royal manner ; for he not 

 only supplied him with money for the undertaking to the amount of 

 800 talents, but in his Asiatic expedition employed above 1000 men 

 to collect animals, which were carefully transmitted to the philospher ! 



Aristotle in his " History " describes the habits of those species of 

 insects most generally known; among Lepidoptera he notices the 

 various kinds of Tinece, feeding on wool, fur, books, &c., and one on 

 honeycomb — no doubt Galleria cerella ; and he also relates how 

 butterflies are produced from caterpillars. Among the Hymenoptera 

 he gives the mode of life and economy of the honey bee, the wild bee, 

 the humble bee, the wasp, the hornet, and the ant ; other insects he 

 describes are the grasshopper and the locust. Aristotle does not in 

 his work draw up in a tabular form any classification of insects, but 

 from his writings we are enabled to gather that he divided them by 

 what is called the wing system, making two primaiy divisions, 

 the winged and the wingless, and subdividing the former into I 

 six, and the latter into two families. From all this it will be 

 seen that Aristotle without doubt paid some attention to the 

 insect world ; and though he did certainly entertain some very curious 

 ideas on the subject, he was not so ignorant of the truth as is gener- 

 ally supposed. We shall all have often come acress Aristotle's 

 theory of the generation of flies, set forth as a sample of his entomo- 

 logical knowledge. He says : — Flies spring from dead animals of 

 their own accord" — a popular error even at the present day, though 

 more than 2100 years have passed away since Aristotle wrote it ; 

 and further, that the flies inherit the nature of the animals from which 

 they spring. Thus, a lion will produce fierce flies which will attack j 

 and sting, while inoffensive flies spring from domesticated and peace- 1 

 fully inclined animals ! I think all will see that this is not at all a 

 fair example to quote, after the list of insects I have given above i 



