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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 figures. This addition is not the least valuable part of his work.

The general hiftory of infects which Swam merdam published in 1669 deserves to fix our attention for a moment. This work, which was printed at Utrecht, feems 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 publication. H. Ch. Henninius tranflated it alfo into Latin. To render the author's descriptions more intelligible, 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 thofe 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

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ment redoubling his attention to them, left their fmalleft change fhould efcape 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 thofe infects, their external and internal parts, their eggs, their webs and their nefts. 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 History, but he did not mean to stop here: death furprised him at a time when he was employed in compofing a hiftory 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 anatomit, 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 hafted 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 Biblia Naturæ five contains the gene

excellent figures and he called it historia Infectorum. The first part

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ral history of infects with additions and corrections and the second the history 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 alfo that of the frog; of the Ephemera, 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 description of the Lucanus Cervus, or flying flag. 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; another fhews how the butterfly is formed under the skin of the caterpillar; and a fourth on the fea animal called Phyfalus. The whole work is full of curious obfervations which befides entertainment furs nifh much information.

The learned have likewife profited greatly by the treatise of the celebrated Valifnieri. His book contains a great number of curious and interefting ob 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 juft 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 spake alfo of beasts and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.'

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

But we must not confine ourselves even to this. However numerous the obfervations of thefe celebrated Naturalifts may be, they are far from having exhaufted the fubject; they have left to pofterity a large field for difcovery, Thofe Infects that are best known are not perfectly known: the more one ftudies them, the more the more one is convinced of this truth, and if we can add any thing to the labours of thofe who have gone before us, in thofe very places where they have been most fuccefsful, what may we not do in thofe where they have failed? Befides, as we are not acquainted with all the different fpecies of infects, those which remain to be difcovered furnish an ample field for exercifing 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

have

have the fame opportunities of improvement, and the fame affiftances with our predeceffors; why do we not make use of them? The microscope which has discovered to them fo many wonders, till then ununknown, has equal wonders in ftore for us. That inftrument withdraws the veil, which conceals nature from our eyes, and makes, if we may use the expreffion, an elephant of a fly, by exhibiting it to us fixteen millions of times larger than it really is.

Thefe reflections on the discoveries that fill remain to be made in the world of infects are the fruit of my experience. For many years I have applied myself to this study. I have obferved thofe minute animals fometimes with the affiftance of nature alone, and sometimes with the aids which art had procured me; but I was always convinced that the subject was not exhausted. In this belief I do not hesitate to prefent this work to the public, notwithstanding fo many others have preceded it. Among the great number of new remarks I have made there may be fome that will not be difpleafing to my readers.

This work will therefore be compofed of my own obfervations, and of those of others, which mutually fupport each other. When mine do not appear fufficient, I fhall call thofe of others to my aid. In this case I fhall endeavour to borrow with difcretion and fidelity. For this end I fhall follow the authors who are most exact, and most to be depended on; and I fhall mention to whom I am indebted for my obfervations. As to method, I will not follow that of any author

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