On Entomology. 373 
instance i — snakes were supposed to be bred by mei'ely watering the 
ground with a certain px'epared liquid; and such notoriety did this 
error gain, that Kiroher, one of the most learned men of his day, ac- 
tually published a recipe for the manufacture of them. Redi, how- 
ever, who flourished about the same time, and published a work on 
insect generation, about the latter end of the century, informs us, that 
he acted up to Kircher's recipe, to a nicety, for a many times, but 
produced no living snakes ; however, he discovered a number of 
small maggots to exist on the spot where the experiments were tried ; 
these were found, from observation, to be blo^^Ti by a brilliant green 
fly, not iniproliably the Miisca CcB'sar, of Linnaeus. These, and 
many other such-like errors, long prevailed; and as many errors still 
do prevail, particularly amongst such persons, who have not sufficient 
means to purchase the scientitic works of the present day, it becomes 
necessary to adopt some method within their reach, to inform the 
mind, and obviate the apparent difficulties ; — this is my chief view 
in writing the present paper, a series of which I intend to continue, 
until I have pi'oceeded through the whole an-angement ; — and first, 
I shall commence with informing your young readers, of the different 
systems adopted and followed from the early ages; and then, pro- 
ceed to simplify the Eclectic or Modern system, which originated with 
M. Clairville, and was followed by Latreille, Dr. Leach, and Mr. 
Stephens, so as to enable any person, however previously ignorant of 
the nature of Entomology, to ascertain to what order, and family of 
insects, those belong to, he may at any time capture. 
Mr. Rennie remark.., that "Aristotle seems to have been the first 
naturalist, who distinguished insects by their wings :" this system, 
however, has been follo^^'ed with greater minuteness in recent times, 
by Linnaeus and De Geer. The next system, in order of time, rec- 
koning fi-om Aristotle, originated with Ulysses Aldrovand, "the emi- 
nent naturalist of Ital)'," who arranged them according to the places 
they frequented, — this method was followed by Vallisnieri, Fabricius, 
and Latreille. The third system, was adopted by Swammerdam, 
about the middle of the 17th century, and was arranged according to 
the nature of their transformation; — this method, Ray and Willoughby 
followed. Fabricius, a Danish writer of high celebrity, conceived 
the idea of classifying them, from the sti-ucture of their mouths, or 
feeding organs ; this is called the Cibarian, Majcillary, or Mouth 
system, which has been adhered to by Cuvier and Lamarck. Sir 
Sverard Home arranged them according to the structure, &c. of their 
eggs, which is called the Ovary (from ova, an ^gg) system. -Mr. 
Mc.Leay proposes to arrange groups of fives, so as to place those, 
which have the nearest resemblance, contiguous to one another, in 
