40 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED* 



with which also the more recent investigations of an emi- 

 nent British Entomologist, I. O. Westwood Esq., have shown 

 that it must be arranged, though, from some difference in its 

 structure as well as habits, he has adopted the generic name 

 (slightly altered) proposed by the Rev. L. Guilding, and has 

 called it Sarcopsylla penetrans. ^ 



The second instance of the insufficiency of popular descrip- 

 tion is even more extraordinary. In 1788 an alarm was 

 excited in this country by the probability of importing, in 

 cargoes of wheat from North America, the insect known by 

 the name of the Hessian fly, whose dreadful ravages will be 

 adverted to hereafter. However the insect tribes are in 

 general despised, they had on that occasion ample revenge. 

 The privy council sat day after day anxiously debating what 

 measures should be adopted to ward off the danger of a calamity 

 more to be dreaded, as they well knew, than the plague or 

 pestilence. Expresses were sent off in all directions to the 

 officers of the customs at the different outports respecting the 

 examination of cargoes — despatches written to the ambas- 

 sadors in France, Austria, Prussia, and America, to gain that 

 information of the want of which they were now so sensible ; 

 and so important was the business deemed, that the minutes 

 of council and the documents collected from all quarters fill 

 upwards of two hundred octavo pages.^ Fortunately Eng- 

 land contained one illustrious naturalist, the most authentic 

 source of information on all subjects which connect Natural 

 History with Agriculture and the Arts, to whom the privy 

 council had the wisdom to apply ; and it was by Sir Joseph 

 Banks's entomological knowledge, and through his suggestions, 

 that they were at length enabled to form some kind of judg- 

 ment on the subject. This judgment was, after all, however, 

 very imperfect. As Sir Joseph Banks had never seen the 

 Hessian fly, nor was it described in any entomological system, 

 he called for facts respecting its nature, propagation, and 

 economy, which could be had only from America. These 

 were obtained as speedily as possible, and consist of numerous 

 letters from individuals, essays from magazines, the reports 

 of the British minister there, &c. &c. One would have sup- 



1 Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. ii. 199—203. 



2 Young's Annals of Agriculture, xi. -106. 



