390 
The Animal-Lore of Shakspeare s Time. 
Bacon makes use of tke word insecta, but gives a 
different interpretation ; after mentioning several kinds 
of insect, such as the weevil and gadfly, he writes, “ Note 
that the word insecta agreeth not with the matter, but we 
use it for brevity’s sake, intending by it creatures bred 
out of putrefaction.” 
Thomas Muffett, or Mouffet, a Frenchman, was phy¬ 
sician to the English Court, in the reign of Elizabeth. 
He wrote a learned and elaborate work on insects, but 
died before the book was published. This work, The 
Theater of Insects, was brought out by Sir Theodore May- 
erne, one of the Court physicians, in the year 1634. May- 
erne, in his dedicatory epistle to Sir William Paddy, chief 
physician to Charles I., looks forward to the time when 
powerful microscopes shall reveal the wonders of insect 
forms. He writes :— 
“ How wilt thou be pleased to see the small proboscis of butterflies 
wreathed alwaies into a spiral line, after they have drawn forth nutri¬ 
ment from flowers, their extended large wings painted by Nature’s arti¬ 
ficial pencil, with paints cannot be imitated ; to which the very rain¬ 
bow is scarse comparable— 
Which right against the sun a thousand colours shewes. 
"What a pleasant spectacle will this be when the artificial hands care¬ 
fully and curiously guide the most sharp penknife, and very fine 
instrument by direction of the sight.” 
Muffett’s work, which is printed with Topsell’s History 
of Four-footed Beasts, in Rowland’s edition, 1658, is the 
chief authority of the time on insects. It would have 
been far more valuable had the author devoted himself 
exclusively to obtaining information from personal obser¬ 
vation and experiment, instead of quoting at length from 
Aristotle, Pliny, and other classical authorities, perpetuat¬ 
ing their errors and conjectures, as well as their truths. 
The use of Cochineal in dyeing is of great antiquity. 
Colour-yielding insects are found on various 
in the southern and eastern countries 
