Suites d Buffon. 569 
was fifteen years of age.* We doubt not but that it will be admit- 
ted by all to bear honourable testimony to his diligence and success. 
For ourselves we can affirm, that we have not of late often met with 
a work on natural history conceived in a sounder spirit, and execut- 
ed with so much judgment and discrimination. Every one who 
studies this elegant tribe of insects, must have long felt the want of 
such a publication. No general description of species has appeared 
since that of Godart, forming a part of the Encyclopedic Methodique. 
That valuable and elaborate production, however, is not adapted to 
the present state of the science, multitudes of new species having 
been discovered since it was written, and numerous improvements 
effected in the mode of arrangement. 
The task which Dr Boisduval has undertaken is by no means an 
easy one. Latreille has somewhere asserted that a good classifica- 
tion of the Lepidoptera is the touchstone of systematists. The dif- 
ficulty arises from the want of prominent characters. It is easy to 
distinguish numerous groups by a certain peculiarity of aspect and 
similarity of design in the colouring, but no sooner is an attempt 
made to define them in a rigorous manner, than it is found that re- 
course must be had to characters of very subordinate importance, al- 
most always minute, and of difficult application in practice. This 
uniformity of organization among the Lepidoptera, results from, or oc- 
casions, the uniformity that exists in their mode of taking nourish- 
ment. The nectar of flowers and the juices of vegetable matter 
form their only food. There is no need, therefore, for that variety 
of structure observable in tribes, (the Coleoptera for example,) which 
are destined to live on almost every kind of organized substance, 
from the hardest ligneous tissue to a semifluid animal matter. 
The difficulties in the way of a lucid arrangement inherent in the 
subject, can scarcely be said to have been diminished by the mode in 
which it has been handled by many modern naturalists. The nume- 
rous " Illustrations" of Lepidoptera published of late years have been 
partial, being either selections from the whole class, or forming part 
of a local Fauna. In either case the subject is regarded in too insu- 
lated a light. The illustrator of foreign butterflies selects a species, 
and by giving prominence to all its minute characters, proposes it 
with considerable plausibility as a distinct genus. The local faunist 
divides his groups in reference to his own limited sphere of observa- 
tion. Neither contemplates the possibility of being ever called upon 
to elaborate a general system, and he leaves it to those who are to re- 
* Preface to Specks General. 
