46 
ARCANA ENTOMOLOGICA. 
It may indeed be urged that the taste for such pursuits in the 
minds of persons in authority may have in some degree contributed 
to such a result, but it appears to me that it is quite independent of 
such consideration. How, in fact, were it not so, can we account 
for the non-publication of such works in this country, when it is 
well known that the Royal Family are and have long been interested 
in these pursuits, the Princess Charlotte, for instance, having 
possessed a cabinet of exotic insects, and her present Majesty as 
well as her Consort being understood to have a strong predilection 
for Natural History. 
It will be sufficient to prove the correctness of these observations, 
to mention a few of the works published under the direction of 
Continental States, which throw into deep shade all that the 
government of this country has ever aided in producing, 
The great work on Egypt, undertaken by the direction of 
Napoleon, would alone be a u monumentum sere perennius.” Its 
magnificent plates (of which those of the Annulose animals are 
perhaps the most elaborate, and which cost the eye-sight of the 
inimitable Savigny) are on a par with all the undertakings of the 
gigantic-minded Emperor. More recently, under the auspices of 
the present King and his government, we have the Expedition 
scientifique de Moree, the Voyage de la Coquille, those of the 
Astrolabe, of D’Orbigny, and others, each of which surpasses any 
of the government Natural History works of this country. 
In Prussia may be mentioned the splendid Symbols Physics of 
Ehrenberg and Hemprich, the insects of which were edited by 
been utterly neglected. I can only acknowledge with regret that such has been the case. If 
it be said that lectures on natural affinities arc included in some course of comparative anatomy, 
I am truly glad to hear it; but if it be urged that the knowledge of comparative anatomy 
implies that of the animal kingdom, I deny it totally, since comparative anatomy is only the 
instrument of Zoology; and while no man can be versed in natural affinities without some 
acquaintance with comparative anatomy, examples may easily be specified of comparative 
anatomists who know nothing of natural history* A Professorship of Natural History 
is necessarily charged icith duties that give ample employment in Paris to thirteen 
professors icith their numerous assistants . [Since this was written another professor¬ 
ship has been established for the investigation of the Annulose animals in particular.] I 
have ventured to give this humiliating picture of the state of Zoological instruction in Great 
Britain, because there are persons who affect surprise that in that science which relates to the 
animated works of God, France should be the predecessor over a nation comparatively more 
religious.”—Hone Entomologicae, p. 457. 
Entertaining as I do the opinion that other and fir higher considerations are involved in the 
study of Zoology than the elucidation of natural affinities, I cannot discover the slightest 
shadow of reason why Zoology should be neglected where Botany, Geology, and Comparative 
Anatomy are introduced. The very notion of such an arrangement is ridiculous, even in tho 
truly English cui bono view of the question. 
If the establishment of such a professorship rests with the Universities, and does not depend 
upon private endowment, it behoves the Zoologists of the country to bring the subject in a 
proper manner before the Senatus Academicus. 
