826 E N T O M 
with the correfponding engravings of the moll remarkable 
fpecies of locufts. 
Little inferior to the locufl in its deflrudtive powers, is 
the phaltsno. graminis of Linnaeus, which deflroys the mea¬ 
dows in Sweden. There the peafants are employed in 
cutting deep ditches in the furface to flop the progrefs of 
the larvae as they pafs along. If the fwarm be fmall, 
this device has the defired effedt; but the numbers of 
thefe animals are often fo great, that they fill up the 
trenches, and pafs along over the dead bodies that are 
buried in them. The formica facchilifcra is a native of 
the Weft Indies, where it pervades the plantations of 
the fugar-cane, entering the plants, and deflroying them 
when they are tender : after long experience of its de¬ 
predations, the inhabitants have never been able to in¬ 
vent a method of deftroying this pernicious animal. In 
our own country, the turnip-fly, the butterfly, the chafer 
maggot, the corn infedt, thrips phyfapus, and the goofe- 
berry worm, have long committed depredations in the 
fields and gardens, which no invention has hitherto been 
able wholly to prevent. See the article Thrips, and 
correfponding engraving of the corn infedt. Another 
objedt highly worthy the attention of the entomologifl, 
is the means of preferving corn from the invafion of in- 
fedts, after it is colledted into granaries. Our fubfiftence, 
in almofl every flage of its progrefs, isconflantly expofed 
to the intrufions of thefe enemies of human induftry. 
Flour, bifcuit, and almofl every kind of provifion, even 
after it is barrelled up for exportation, is liable to be de¬ 
voured or rendered ufelefs, by the depredations of the 
minuted animals. See Curculio, vol. v. p.480, and 
correfponding engraving of the weevil, &c. The pa- 
triotifm of ftatefmen, and their zeal for the good of man¬ 
kind, could not receive a nobler or more ufeful diredtion 
than in holding out rewards to fuch as might difeover the 
mod effedtual means of preventing the ravages of thofe 
animals, which, by the mod deflrudtive adtivity, are con¬ 
tinually converting large dores of provifions into fo many 
mafles of corruption. If we pafs from thefe evils to 
other inconveniences with which infedts opprefs the hu¬ 
man race, we fhall find room to commiferate the inhabi¬ 
tants of many parts of the globe. What an uncomfort¬ 
able life mud the poor Laplander lead, fince, at certain 
feafons of the year, the number of infedts is fo great, 
that a candle is no fooner lighted than the flame is ex- 
tinguiflied by the multitudes that flock to it ; where, 
after millions are dedroyed, famidied millions fucceed, 
and renew the unceafing combat. Lefs injurious, though 
equally tormenting, are the mufquetos which infed the 
warm climates of Ada and South America. Even in Bri¬ 
tain, which is happily free from thefe unrelenting inva¬ 
ders, much inconvenience is often felt from the ding of 
the hornet, the wafp, and the bee; and almod as bad 
from filthy vermin, efpecially the bug. See the articles 
Cimex, vol. iv. p. 59S, and Culex, vol. v. p.461—463, 
with the corper-plates of thofe various infedts. To coun- 
teradt thefe inveterate enemies of man, and to relieve him 
from the mifehiefs they occafion, ought always to be one 
aim of the entomologid: and no perfon will deny, that 
whoever, by the dudy of infedts, has found the means of 
availing himfelf of the labours of fuch as are ufeful, or 
prevent the noxious from doing harm, hath rendered an 
edential fervice to mankind. 
After what has been faid, it may appear lingular, that 
the dudy of entomology was very long before it attradted 
any confiderable degree of attention from men of learning, 
Aridotle, the father of naturalids, has allotted but a fmall 
portion of his works to the hidory of infedts; nor does it 
appear that he has been always fufficiently attentive to 
the authorities upon which he inferts the different fadts 
he relates, or to the order in which they are arranged. 
The hidories of Pliny and iElian are formed upon the 
fame plan, and are liable to fimilar defedts : they confid of 
a number of obfervations, ill arranged, and infufficiently 
authenticated. 
OLOGY, 
During that long fucceffion of ages, which was only 
didinguifhed by ignorance and barbarifm, entomology 
fliared the fame fate with every other fcience : it was 
condemned to oblivion. After a fade for literature had 
begun to revive, the hidory of infedts again attradted 
the notice of the curious ; unhappily, however, for the 
growth of fcience, men were then devoted to the dudy 
of the ancients with a blind admiration. It was from 
their writings that they imagined the moderns were to 
derive a complete knowledge of all the fecrets of nature ; 
and Aridotle was principally confulted for the hidory of 
animals. Had Aldrovandus, Gefner, and Mouffet,"be- 
dowed the fame attention in fludying the works of nature, 
that they employed upon the writings of ancient authors, 
they would have made a much greater progrefs in real 
knowledge. T. he attempts of thefe writers, however, 
gave birth to the refearches of others, who were gradu¬ 
ally more bold and fuccefsful, in proportion as their re¬ 
verence for antiquity was diminiflied. I11 1668, about 
twelve years after Mouffet publiflied his Thcatrum InJ'dto- 
rum, the experiments and obfervations of the celebrated 
Rhedi made their appearance in Italy. His invefligations 
were principally directed to the manner of the generation 
of infedts, with a view to overthrow that abfurd and er¬ 
roneous dodttine edablifiied by the ancients, of their ari- 
fing fortuitoufly from different bodies in a date of putre¬ 
faction. Nothing can more fully demondrate the drength 
of prejudice than thofe elaborate treatifes which Malpighi, 
Swammerdam, and Rhedi, were obliged to compote, in 
order to combat the notion of the fpontaneons generation 
of infedts ; an opinion which at prefent feems as ridicu¬ 
lous and unphilofophical as it is untrue. Notwithfland- 
ing all their efforts to prove, that the fmaller animals are 
produced in the fame manner with the larger, and that 
the organization of the body of a mite requires the fame 
apparatus of litnbs, and' the fame complete ftrudture of 
parts, as that of an elephant, attempts were dill made to 
revive the ancient error by Kirker, Bonarie, and others. 
And what is mod mortifying to human reafon, the fame 
Rhedi, the declared enemy of prejudices, and the man of 
all others who knew bed how to combat them, has, upon 
this very fubjedt, fallen into a fimilar error. In order to 
produce thofe infedts which are found upon the fmall ex- 
crefcences of plants and trees, he conferred a vivifying 
power, a kind of foul, upon thofe vegetables where they 
were found, and thus laid afide the ordinary mode of 
generation, which in other inftances he had laboured to 
edablifli. 
Swammerdam w'as the contemporary of Rhedi; and, 
like him, he poffeffed the courage to examine nature, and 
think for himfelf*. This naturalid made many anatomical 
experiments upon infedts, which after his death were 
publiflied at Leyden, and laid the foundation of great 
improvements in entomology. About the fame period, 
Mary Sibille Merian, a Dutch lady, contributed largely 
to bring the hidory of infedts into repute, by the beauty 
of her paintings and drawings. After having executed 
elegant figures of feveral of the infedts of Europe, from a 
finguiar avidity for entomology fhe was prompted to 
crofs the Atlantic, and give paintings of many of thofe 
in South America. Having refided for feveral years in 
Surinam, fhe returned to Europe with exquifite drawings 
of many of the fplendid infedts of that continent, which 
were afterwards engraved and publiflied in Holland ; and 
her work, with the original drawings, are now preferved 
as objedts of real curiodty in the Britifh mufeum. From 
thefe are given many of the bed engravings which illuf- 
trate this work. 
Goedart is another of the firfl authors who adorned the 
hidory of infedts with the labours of the pencil. He paid 
great attention to the metamorphofes of the animals, and 
has painted many of them in the feveral forms which they 
affume, from their appearance till their death. His work 
was originally publillied in German, very badly arranged ; 
a new edition in Latin was afterwards given by Dr, Lider, 
in 
