[ 4 } 
Specially the weak and the timid. Some of thofe writers have 
gone fo far as to afiert, that they were an ufual prefage of the 
plague ; others, that their numbers were great enough to ren¬ 
der the air peftilential, and'that they would mangle and deftroy 
every kind of vegetable, and flarve the cattle in the fields, 
k tom thefe alarming mifreprefentations almoft every one, igno¬ 
rant of their hiftory, has been under fome difmal apprehen- 
fions concerning them ; and even prayers have been offered up 
in fome churches, to deliver us from the apprehended approach¬ 
ing calamity. 
To give the public a true idea of the nature of thefe Infeeds, 
and thereby difpel their imaginary terrors; to fhew what tire 
mifehiefs are which they are really capable of occafioning, and to 
point out the moft likely means of obviating thofe mifehiefs, 
are the motives which induce me to collect together and publifh 
the notes and obfervations I have from time to time made con¬ 
cerning them, not as containing the compleateft poffible hiftory 
of the Infeft, but fuch as may be expected on the fpur of the 
oecafon. 
It may be remarked, in the firft place, that the Infedt in 
queftion is net new in this country, being every year to be 
found in abundance, and well known to thofe who collect 
Ixrfedts to be the Caterpillar of the Brown~ta'd Moth : nor is it 
peculiar to this country, but found in many parts of Europe, 
and has been conf dered, by all who have written on it, as noto¬ 
rious for its ravages. Ai.bin, an Englifh writer on Infects, 
1720, fays, that the Caterpillars of this moth lay themfelves 
up in webs all winter, and as foon as the Buds open, they 
come forth and devour them in fuch a manner, that whole 
frees, and fometimes hedges, for a great way together, are 
abfolutely bare. Geoffjroy, a French author, in his Hiftory 
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