THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 5.] SATURDAY, MAY 3, 1856. [Price U . 
CHEAP WORKS ON ENTOMOLOGY. 
As one of the “signs of the times,” we 
wish to call the attention of our readers 
more particularly to the advertisement, 
which appeared in last week’s ‘ Intel- 
ligencer,’ of a new and cheaper edition 
of Kirby and Spence’s ‘Introduction to 
Entomology.’ Our own opinion is that 
this work might long ago have been 
brought out in a cheap form with ad- 
vantage to every body concerned, and 
that, by keeping the price at 31s. Gd., 
a premium was offered for the produc- 
tion of inferior works treating of much 
the same subject, and such works, if 
professing to teach the rudiments of the 
study of insects, and if offered at 8s. or 
10s., would command a ready sale, on 
account of their greater cheapness. For, 
after all, the parents who buy books for 
the children are not likely to be well 
informed of the various merits of the 
different elementary works on Entomo- 
logy, and of two works treating on the 
same subject, that offered at the lowest 
price will always stand a good chance of 
selling best. And, in point of fact, the re- 
putation and price of Kirby and Spence’s 
‘ Introduction to Entomology ’ has tended 
greatly to promote the sale of inferior 
and cheaper works. Purchasers were 
attracted to the subject by the reputation 
of the work, and when discouraged by 
the price asked for the two octavo 
volumes, they naturally inquired if there 
were no cheaper publications on the 
same subject, and thus “ Kirby and 
Spence” actually served as a decoy- 
duck to push the sale of many inferior 
publications. 
“ Mais, nous avons change tout cela,” 
and now “ Kirby and Spence ” itself 
appears at a price distancing all com- 
petitors from the field, and making more 
than one entomological writer look blue 
at the thought of the great depreciation 
in the value of his copyright. When a 
revolution has taken place, those, whether 
originally parties to it or not, who first 
adapt their actions to the altered state of 
circumstances in which they find them- 
selves, will be the first to profit by the 
new state of things: it was thus that 
Sir Robert Peel, by accepting the Reform 
Bill when it was “ un fait accompli,” and, 
by basing his course of action upon it, 
speedily regained all the power which a 
less compliant statesman would have irre- 
trievably lost. 
“Kirby and Spence” will, in its pre- 
sent form, find its way into many houses 
where it has not hitherto penetrated, it 
will speedily attain a circulation, of 
which Mr. Kirby, in his most sanguine 
moments, never dreamed, and which he 
never lived to see ; but it is to us a great 
source of gratification that the other 
author, Mr. Spence, is still alive and 
well (and long may he continue so), and 
