134 
MOJJLKI< SYSTEM, 
Class V. INSECT A. 
History . — Insecta, so named from in (into) and seco (to cut). This 
term was applied to these animals by the Latins; by the Greeks they 
were named Entoma (sWopia), from kv, into, and riyvuj, to cut. In- 
sects were so named, because their bodies are composed of many 
joints or segments ; on which account several of the ancient and older 
naturalists placed them with the classes Crustacea, Myriapoda, Arad* 
noida, and Vermes. 
The oldest records on this subject are to be found in the sacred 
writings, where mention is made of locusts, flies, and caterpillars ; and 
it is probable that Moses had acquired some knowledge of insects 
from the Egyptian sages, as his writings abound with passages relating 
to insects. 
Hippocrates, as we are told by Pliny, wrote on insects; and the 
writings of the earlier Greek and Latin philosophers, quoted by Pliny* 
afford extracts of bis labours. 
Aristotle, in his History of Animals, has devoted a very considerable 
portion of his attention to insects, and has described their general 
external structure with great accuracy. 
Aldrovandus, in 1602, published a very voluminous work, He Ani- 
malibus Insectis, in which he divides insects into Terrestrial and Aqua- 
tic. 
In 1612, Wolfgang Frantzius published Ilistoria Animalinm Sacra, 
which contains some new observations, and a distribution of insects 
into Aerial, Aquatic, and Terrestrial. 
Swammerdam, who published his Ilistoria Insectorum Generalis in 
1669, divided genuine insects into, 1st, Those which, after leaving the 
egg, appear under tin: form of the perfect insect, but have no wings* 
which parts are afterwards produced : 2dly, Those insects which ap* 
pear, when hatched from the eggs, under the form of a larva and* 
when full grown, change into a chrysalis, where it remains until it 5 
parts are fit to be developed : 3d!y, Those which, having attained the 
pupa (chrysalis or nynipha) state, do not divest themselves of their 
skin, ilis other divisions refer to animals of the classes Arachnoids 
Crustacea, and Myriapoda; and the whole of his work contains mud' 
valuable observation on the structure and economy of these animals- 
In 1735, Lirtne published the first edition of his Systems Nature 
sive Rcgna Iriu Natunc systematic} propositi/ per Classes, Ordines, Genera 
et Specks, in which work Insects are distributed into four Orders, ac- 
cording to the number and form of their wings: 1. Coleoptcra* 
2. Awoioptera; 3. Hemiptera ; 4. Aptera. 
With the last Order he included Crustacea, Aracknides, Myriapods 
Vermes, and certain Zoophytes ; but in subsequent editions of this work' 
