SYSTEM OF NATURE. 
95 
—although in this respect superior to his contemporaries— 
that DeGeer was so particularly great; as a physiologist 
he deserves still higher praise ; and as the historian of in¬ 
sect economy he stands unrivalled : he chose the three 
highest branches of the science, and his labours are dif¬ 
fused through all the compilations on Entomology from 
the date of their publication to the present hour. 
DeGeer was followed by Fabricius, whose bold, skilful 
and highly artificial system, founded on the mouth alone, 
is known to all entomologists : having no longer any need 
of the wings as affording characters, he of course rejected 
the names which were derived from them, and substituted 
others altogether different; names which, however, have 
been considered by all subsequent writers as too harsh and 
unpleasant to be perpetuated. There is an evidence of 
tact, talent and superiority, about all that Fabricius has 
written ; his very errors evince an air of authority which 
it is difficult to resist. The great utility of the Fabrician 
system consists in the assistance it affords us when blended 
with those which preceded it. It will be useful, as showing 
into what extravagancies the most talented men may be 
led by a favorite hobby, to give an idea of this system ; 
although it is but an act of justice towards this extraor¬ 
dinary man, whose works may be regarded as of standard 
authority in Entomology, to say that he was aware of the 
artificial character of his bizarre arrangement, and seems 
to have planned it with a view to furnishing a ready guide 
to the genus and species of an insect, rather than as likely 
to afford the slightest clew to the System of Nature. In 
France, the nomenclature of Fabricius, as regards genera 
and species, has taken precedence of the prior nomencla¬ 
ture of Linneus. 
