in this point of view, it will give no less pleasure to thofe who read for inftruction, than to thofe who read only for amufement. It is known, and is but too true, that an infinity of fmall animals defolate our plants, our trees, and our fruits; that they attack our furniture and our cloaths; that they eat the corn in our granaries, and that they do not even respect ourfelves: would it not be defirable if we could defend ourselves from fuch enemies? This M. de Reaumur conceives to be practicable by a diligent attention to the nature of each fpecies. By this means we might be able to destroy them, and. their eggs, we might prevent thom from injuring us, and we might render important fervices to the community by discovering the means of preferving the fruits of the earth, and securing the health of the human body.

There remains a work of G. Rondeletius, Doctor of Medecine at Montpellier, in which the principal defign of the author was to treat of fishes, and other a quatic animals. He has not confined himself however closely to his fubject, but has treated of infects, and has added figures to his descriptions. In the li brary of the Jesuits at Ratisbon, there is a copy of this work in two volumes, on the margins of the leaves are large notes, faid to be in the hand writing of Gefner. However that may be, this work which must have occafioned great labour to the author is very embarraffing to the reader, for he is not fixed in his principles, but often contradicts himself.

The work of Ruyfch, Profeffor of Anatomy and Botany at Amfterdam is well known. This illuftrious author intended chiefly to treat of quadrupeds, of fishes, and birds, foreign and domeftic. He has however in the courfe of his general detail given us the defcription of a few infects illuftrated with fi gures. This addition is not the least valuable part of his work.

The general hiftory of infects which Swam merdam published in 1669 deferves to fix our attention for a moment. This work, which was printed at Utrecht, seems to have no other fault, but that of being written in a language not generally known. This occafioned its being tranflated from Dutch into French. The translation was printed in 1685, at the fame place in 4to, the fize of the original pub. lication. H. Ch. Henninius tranflated it alfo into Latin. To render the author's descriptions more întelligible, he added plates reprefenting the four different changes which infects undergo; first in their natural fize, and then as they appear in the Microfcope. This fecond translation was reprinted at Utrecht in 1693, augmented with a differtation, in order to fhew the analogy of infects, with other animals and with plants. It cannot be denied that Swammerdam has excelled all those who had gone over the fame courfe before him. He himself went in purfuit of infects into the woods and fields; he collected their eggs, brought out the young, and fed them with all imaginable care. He was feen obferving them from morning to night, and at every mo

meng

ment redoubling his attention to them, left their smallest change should escape his curiofity. An intimate acquaintance with the external conformation of infects appeared to him a very fuperficial attainment; he employed anatomical inftruments for the diffection of these minute animals, and penetrated into the very convolutions of their vifcera. He employed a painter three times a week, to paint under his eye, the objects that nature prefented him with. He likewise preserved in a cabinet all those insects, their external and internal parts, their eggs, their webs and their nests. Such apparatus, fo many experiments, fuch labour and penetration could not fail of producing an excellent work. The public could not reasonably have exacted more from him than this General Hiftory, but he did not mean to stop here: death furprised him at a time when he was employed in compofing a history of each particular fpecies. Mr Thevenot, his friend, inherited his papers; but the many occupations of this gentleman prevented him from being able to lay them before the public. From him, the manufcript paffed into the hands of J. du Verney an able anatomift, who enriched his own cabinet with it. There it lay buried till there could' be found a man as zealous for the advancement of Science as the illuftrious Boerhaave. He purchased the work, and was no fooner in poffeffion of it than he haf ted to communicate this treasure to the world, and put it to the prefs in the year 1736. He joined with it the other history of the author: the work is full of excellent figures and he called it Biblia Natura five historia Infectorum. The first part contains the gene

ral

ral history of infects with additions and corrections and the fecond the hiftory of each of them in particular. We find in this fecond part the natural hiftory of gnats, of bees, of the maggots in cheese, of moths, of the gad-fly, of the caterpillars that lodge within the leaves of the oak, willow, &c; we, find also that of the frog; of the Ephemeræ, infects which are produced and die the fame day; of the flea, and water-fcorpion. Befides thefe, the author has given the anatomy of the Sepia, and that of the loufe, and the defcription of the Lucanus Cervus, or flying ftag. There are alfo four particular treatises; one of them on the infects which grow in the galls of Plants; the other on the feed of the Fern; ano ther fhews how the butterfly is formed under the fkin of the caterpillar; and a' fourth on the fea animal called Phyfalus. The whole work is full of curious obfervations which befides entertainment fur. nifh much information.

The learned have likewife profited greatly by the treatise of the celebrated Valifnieri. His book con tains a great number of curious and interefting obs fervations.

Such are the affiftances afforded us in the study of infects. They are no doubt confiderable, and guided by the works of the learned men I have just named, we cannot fail of making very great progrefs. I cannot however but regret the lofs of the works which a great King compofed on the natural history of plants and animals. What light would they not throw

throw on the fubject I am treating of, confidered as the productions of a Prince, who was wifer than all men, and who fpake of trees, from the Cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyfop that fpringeth out of the wall: he fpake alfo of beafts • and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.'

But why deplore a lofs which Heaven has thought fit we should sustain? Let us put an end to our regrets, and repair that lofs by a continual study of the works of thofe great men whom I have just named.

But we muft not confine ourselves even to this. However numerous the obfervations of these celebrated Naturalifts may be, they are far from having exhausted the fubject: they have left to pofterity a large field for difcovery. Those Infacts that are best known are not perfectly known: the more one ftudies them, the more one is convinced of this truth, and if we can add any thing to the labours of those who have gone before us, in thofe very places where they have been most fuccefsful, what may we not do in those where they have failed? Befides, as we are not acquainted with all the different fpecies of infects, those which remain to be difcovered furnifh an ample field for exercising the industry and fagacity of the curious. The fubject is inexhauftible, every day furnishes us with fomething new; and he who thinks he has made great proficiency, will receive information from one who has not made fo much as himself. We