... all prodigious thingsAbominable, unutterable, and worseThan fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd,Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimæras dire.
... all prodigious thingsAbominable, unutterable, and worseThan fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd,Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimæras dire.
But the pleasures of a student of the science to which I am desirous of introducing you, are far from being confined to such as result from an examination of the exterior form and decorations of insects: for could these, endless as they seem, be exhausted, or, wonderful as they are, lose their interest, yet new sources, exuberant in amusement and instruction, may be opened, which will furnish an almost infinite fund for his curiosity to draw upon. The striking peculiarity and variety of structure which they exhibit in their instruments of nutrition, motion, and oviposition; in their organs of sensation, generation, and the great fountains of vitality,—indeed their whole system, anatomically considered, will open a world of wonders to you with which you will not soon be satiated, and during your survey of which you will at every step feel disposed to exclaim with the Roman naturalist—"In these beings so minute, and as it were such non-entities, what wisdom is displayed, what power, what unfathomable perfection[32]!" But even this will not bring you to the end of your pleasures: you must leave the dead to visit the living; you must behold insects when full of life and activity, engaged in their several employments, practising their various arts, pursuingtheir amours, and preparing habitations for their progeny: you must notice the laying and kind of their eggs; their wonderful metamorphoses; their instincts, whether they be solitary or gregarious; and the other miracles of their history—all of which will open to you a richer mine of amusement and instruction, I speak it without hesitation, than any other department of Natural History can furnish. A minute enumeration of these particulars would be here misplaced, and only forestall what will be detailed more at large hereafter; but a rapid glance at a very few of the most remarkable of them, may serve as a stimulus to excite your curiosity, and induce you to enter with greater eagerness into the wide field to which I shall conduct you.
The lord of the creation plumes himself upon his powers of invention, and is proud to enumerate the various useful arts and machines to which they have given birth, not aware that "He who teacheth man knowledge" has instructed these despised insects to anticipate him in many of them. The builders of Babel doubtless thought their invention of turning earth into artificial stone, a very happy discovery[33]; yet a little bee[34]had practised this art, using indeed a different process, on a small scale, and the white ants on a large one, ever since the world began. Man thinks that he stands unrivalled as an architect, and that his buildings are without a parallel among the works of the inferior orders of animals. He would be of a different opinion did he attend to the history of insects: he would find that many of them have been architects from time immemorial; that they havehad their houses divided into various apartments, and containing staircases, gigantic arches, domes, colonnades, and the like; nay, that even tunnels are excavated by them so immense, compared with their own size, as to be twelve times bigger than that projected by Mr. Dodd to be carried under the Thames at Gravesend[35]. The modern fine lady, who prides herself on the lustre and beauty of the scarlet hangings which adorn the stately walls of her drawing-room, or the carpets that cover its floor, fancying that nothing so rich and splendid was ever seen before, and pitying her vulgar ancestors, who were doomed to unsightly white-wash and rushes, is ignorant all the while, that before she or her ancestors were in existence, and even before the boasted Tyrian dye was discovered, a little insect had known how to hang the walls of its cell with tapestry of a scarlet more brilliant than any her rooms can exhibit[36]; and that others daily weave silken carpets, both in tissue and texture infinitely superior to those she so much admires. No female ornament is more prized and costly than lace, the invention and fabrication of which seems the exclusive claim of the softer sex. But even here they have been anticipated by these little industrious creatures, who often defend their helpless chrysalis, by a most singular covering, and as beautiful as singular, of lace[37]. Other arts have been equally forestalled by these creatures. What vast importance is attached to the invention of paper! For near six thousand years one of ourcommonest insects has known how to make and apply it to its purposes[38]; and even pasteboard, superior in substance and polish to any we can produce, is manufactured by another[39]. We imagine that nothing short of human intellect can be equal to the construction of a diving-bell or an air-pump—yet a spider is in the daily habit of using the one, and, what is more, one exactly similar in principle to ours, but more ingeniously contrived; by means of which she resides unwetted in the bosom of the water, and procures the necessary supplies of air by a much more simple process than our alternating buckets[40]—and the caterpillar of a little moth knows how to imitate the other, producing a vacuum, when necessary for its purposes, without any piston besides its own body[41]. If we think with wonder of the populous cities which have employed the united labours of man for many ages to bring them to their full extent, what shall we say to the white ants, which require only a few months to build a metropolis capable of containing an infinitely greater number of inhabitants than even imperial Nineveh, Babylon, Rome, or Pekin, in all their glory?
That insects should thus have forestalled us in our inventions ought to urge us to pay a closer attention to them and their ways than we have hitherto done, since it is not at all improbable that the result would be many useful hints for the improvement of our arts and manufactures, and perhaps for some beneficial discoveries. The painter might thus probably be furnished with more brilliant pigments, the dyer with more delicate tints, andthe artisan with a new and improved set of tools. In this last respect insects deserve particular notice. All their operations are performed with admirable precision and dexterity; and though they do not usually vary the mode, yet that mode is always the best that can be conceived for attaining the end in view. The instruments also with which they are provided are no less wonderful and various than the operations themselves. They have their saws, and files, and augers, and gimlets, and knives, and lancets, and scissors, and forceps, with many other similar implements; several of which act in more than one capacity, and with a complex and alternate motion to which we have not yet attained in the use of our tools. Nor is the fact so extraordinary as it may seem at first, since "He who is wise in heart and wonderful in working" is the inventor and fabricator of the apparatus of insects; which may be considered as a set of miniature patterns drawn for our use by a Divine hand. I shall hereafter give you a more detailed account of some of the most striking of these instruments; and if you study insects in this view, you will be well repaid for all the labour and attention you bestow upon them.
But a more important species of instruction than any hitherto enumerated may be derived from entomological pursuits. If we attend to the history and manners of insects, they will furnish us with many useful lessons in Ethics, and from them we may learn to improve ourselves in various virtues. We have indeed the inspired authority of the wisest of mankind for studying them in this view, since he himself wrote a treatise upon them, and sends his sluggard to one for a lesson of wisdom[42].And if we value diligence and indefatigable industry; judgement, prudence, and foresight; economy and frugality; if we look upon modesty and diffidence as female ornaments; if we revere parental affection—of all these, and many more virtues, insects in their various instincts exhibit several striking examples, as you will see in the course of our correspondence.
With respect to religious instruction insects are far from unprofitable; indeed in this view Entomology seems to possess peculiar advantages above every other branch of Natural History. In the larger animals, though we admire the consummate art and wisdom manifested in their structure, and adore that Almighty power and goodness which by a wonderful machinery, kept in motion by the constant action and re-action of the great positive and negative powers of Nature, maintains in full force the circulations necessary to life, perception, and enjoyment; yet as there seems no disproportion between the objects and the different operations that are going on in them, and we see that they afford sufficient space for the play of their systems, we do not experience the same sensations of wonder and astonishment that strike us when we behold similar operations carried on without interruption in animals scarcely visible to the naked eye. That creatures, which in the scale of being are next to non-entities, should be elaborated with so much art and contrivance, have such a number of parts both internal and external, all so highly finished and each so nicely calculated to answer its end; that they should include in this evanescent form such a variety of organs of perception and instruments of motion, exceeding in number and peculiarity of structure thoseof other animals; that their nervous and respiratory systems should be so complex, their secretory and digestive vessels so various and singular, their parts of generation so clearly developed, and that these minims of nature should be endowed with instincts in many cases superior to all our boasted powers of intellect—truly these wonders and miracles declare to every one who attends to the subject, "The hand that made us is divine." We are the work of a Being infinite in power, in wisdom, and in goodness.
But no religious doctrine is more strongly established by the history of insects than that of a superintending Providence. That of the innumerable species of these beings, many of them beyond conception fragile and exposed to dangers and enemies without end, no link should be lost from the chain, but all be maintained in those relative proportions necessary for the general good of the system; that if one species for a while preponderate, and instead of preserving seem to destroy, yet counterchecks should at the same time be provided to reduce it within its due limits; and further, that the operations of insects should be so directed and overruled as to effect the purposes for which they were created and never exceed their commission: nothing can furnish a stronger proof than this, that an unseen hand holds the reins, now permitting one to prevail and now another, as shall best promote certain wise ends; and saying to each, "Hitherto shalt thou come and no further."
So complex is this mundane system, and so incessant the conflict between its component parts, an observation which holds good particularly with regard to insects, that if instead of being under such control it were left tothe agency of blind chance, the whole must inevitably soon be deranged and go to ruin. Insects, in truth, are a book in which whoever reads under proper impressions cannot avoid looking from the effect to the cause, and acknowledging his eternal power and godhead thus wonderfully displayed and irrefragably demonstrated: and whoever beholds these works with the eyes of the body, must be blind indeed if he cannot, and perverse indeed if he will not, with the eye of the soul behold in all his glory the Almighty Workman, and feel disposed, with every power of his nature, to praise and magnify
"Him first, Him last, Him midst, Him without end."
"Him first, Him last, Him midst, Him without end."
And now having led you to the vestibule of an august temple, which in its inmost sanctuary exhibits enshrined in glory the symbols of the Divine Presence, I should invite you to enter and give a tongue to the Hallelujahs, which every creature in its place, by working his will with all its faculties, pours forth to its great Creator: but I must first endeavour to remove, as I trust I shall effectually, those objections to the study of these interesting beings which I alluded to in the outset of this letter, and this shall be the aim of my next address.
I am, &c.
In my last I gave you a general view of the science of Entomology, and endeavoured to prove to you that it possesses attractions and beauty sufficient to reward any student who may profess himself its votary. I am now to consider it in a less alluring light, as a pursuit attended by no small degree of obloquy, in consequence of certain objections thought to be urged with great force against it. To obviate these, and remove every scruple from your mind, shall be the business of the present letter.
Two principal objections are usually alleged with great confidence against the study and pursuit of insects. By some they are derided as trifling and unimportant, and deemed an egregious waste of time and talents; by others they are reprobated as unfeeling and cruel, and as tending to harden the heart.
I. I shall begin with the first of these objections—that the entomologist is a mere trifler. As for the silly outcry and abuse of the ignorant vulgar, who are always ready to laugh at what they do not understand, and because insects are minute objects conclude that the study of them must be a childish pursuit, I shall not waste words upon what I so cordially despise. But since even learned men and philosophers, from a partial and prejudicedview of the subject, having recourse to this common-place logic, are sometimes disposed to regard all inquiry into these minutiæ of nature as useless and idle, and the mark of a little mind; to remove such prejudice and misconceptions I shall now dilate somewhat upon the subject ofCui bono?
When we see many wise and learned men pay attention to any particular department of science, we may naturally conclude that it is on account of some profit and instruction which they foresee may be derived from it; and therefore in defending Entomology I shall first have recourse to theArgumentum ad verecundiam, and mention the great names that have cultivated or recommended it.
We may begin the list with the first man that ever lived upon the earth, for we are told that he gave a name to every living creature[43], amongst which insects must be included; and to give an appropriate name to an object necessarily requires some knowledge of its distinguishing properties. Indeed one of the principal pleasures and employments of the paradisiacal state was probably the study of the various works of creation[44]. Before the fall the book of nature was the Bible of man, in which he could read the perfections and attributes of the invisible Godhead[45], and in it, as in a mirror, behold an image of the things of the spiritual world. Moses also appears to have been conversant with our little animals, and to have studied them with some attention. This he has shown, not only by being aware of the distinctions which separate the various tribes of grasshoppers,crickets &c. (Gryllus, L.) into different genera[46], but also by noticing the different direction of the two anterior from the four posterior legs of insects; for, as he speaks of them as going upon four legs[47], it is evident that he considered the two anterior as arms. Solomon, the wisest of mankind, made Natural History a peculiar object of study, and left treatises behind him upon its various branches, in whichcreeping thingsor insects were not overlooked[48]; and a wiser than Solomon directs our attention to natural productions, when he bids usconsiderthe lilies of the field[49], teaching us that they are more worthy of our notice than the most glorious works of man: he also not obscurely intimates that insects are symbolical beings, when he speaks of scorpions as synonymous with evil spirits[50]; thus giving into our hands a clue for a more profitable mode of studying them, as furnishing moral and spiritual instruction.
If to these scriptural authorities we add those of uninspired writers, ancient and modern, the names of many worthies, celebrated both for wisdom and virtue, may be produced. Aristotle among the Greeks, and Pliny the elder among the Romans, may be denominated the fathers of Natural History, as well as the greatest philosophers of their day; yet both these made insects a principal object of their attention: and in more recent times, if we look abroad, what names greater than those of Redi, Malpighi, Vallisnieri, Swammerdam, Leeuwenhoek, Reaumur, Linné, De Geer, Bonnet, and the Hubers? and at home, what philosophers have donemore honour to their country and to human nature than Ray, Willughby, Lister, and Derham? Yet all these made the study of insects one of their most favourite pursuits; and, as if to prove that this study is not incompatible with the highest flights of genius, we can add to the list the name of one of the most sublime of our poets, Gray, who was very zealously devoted to Entomology. As far therefore as names have weight, the above enumeration seems sufficient to shelter the votaries of this pleasing science from the charge of folly.
But we do not wish to rest our defence upon authorities alone; let the voice of reason be heard, and our justification will be complete. The entomologist, or, to speak more generally, the naturalist (for on this question ofCui bono?every student in all departments of Natural History is concerned), if the following considerations be allowed their due weight, may claim a much higher station amongst the learned than has hitherto been conceded to him.
There are two principal avenues to knowledge—the study of words and the study of things. Skill in the learned languages being often necessary to enable us to acquire knowledge in the former way, is usually considered as knowledge itself; so that no one asksCui bono?when a person devotes himself to the study of verbal criticism, and employs his time in correcting the errors that have crept into the text of an ancient writer. Indeed it must be owned, though perhaps too much stress is sometimes laid upon it, that this is very useful to enable us to ascertain his true meaning. But after all, words are but the arbitrary signs of ideas, and have no value independent of those ideas, further than what arisesfrom congruity and harmony, the mind being dissatisfied when an idea is expressed by inadequate words, and the ear offended when their collocation is inharmonious. To account the mere knowledge of words, therefore, as wisdom, is to mistake the cask for the wine, and the casket for the gem. I say all this because knowledge of words is often extolled beyond its just merits, and put for all wisdom; while knowledge of things, especially of the productions of nature, is derided as if it were mere folly. We should recollect that God hath condescended to instruct us by both these ways, and therefore neither of them should be depreciated. He hath set before us his word and his world. The former is the great avenue to truth and knowledge by the study ofwords, and, as being the immediate and authoritative revelation of his will, is entitled to ourprincipalattention; the latter leads us to the same conclusions, though less directly, by the study ofthings, which stands next in rank to that of God's word, and before that of any work of man. And whether we direct our eyes to the planets rolling in their orbits, and endeavour to trace the laws by which they are guided through the vast of space, whether we analyse those powers and agents by which all the operations of nature are performed, or whether we consider the various productions of this our globe, from the mighty cedar to the microscopic mucor—from the giant elephant to the invisible mite, still we are studying the works and wonders of our God. The book, to whatever page we turn, is written by the finger of him who created us; and in it, provided our minds be rightly disposed, we may read his eternal verities. And the more accurate and enlarged our knowledge of his works, the better shall we be ableto understand his word; and the more practised we are in his word, the more readily shall we discern his truth in his works; for, proceeding from the same great Author, they must, when rightly interpreted, mutually explain and illustrate each other.
Who then shall dare maintain, unless he has the hardihood to deny that God created them, that the study of insects and their ways is trifling or unprofitable? Were they not arrayed in all their beauty, and surrounded with all their wonders, and made so instrumental (as I shall hereafter prove them to be) to our welfare, that we might glorify and praise him for them? Why were insects made attractive, if not, as Ray well expresses it, that they might ornament the universe and be delightful objects of contemplation to man[51]? And is it not clear, as Dr. Paley has observed, that the production of beauty was as much in the Creator's mind in painting a butterfly or in studding a beetle, as in giving symmetry to the human frame, or graceful curves to its muscular covering[52]? And shall we think it beneath us to study what he hath not thought it beneath him to adorn and place on this great theatre of creation? Nay, shall we extol those to the skies who bring together at a vast expense the most valuable specimens of the arts, the paintings and statues of Italy and Greece, all of which, however beautiful, as works of man,fall short of perfection; and deride and upbraid those who collect, for the purpose of admiring their beauty, the finished and perfect chef-d'œuvres of a Divine artist? May we gaze with rapture unblamed upon an Apollo of Belvedere, or Venus de Medicis, or upon the exquisite paintings of a Raphael or a Titian, and yet when we behold with ecstasy sculptures that are produced by the chisel of the Almighty, and the inimitable tints laid on by his pencil, because an insect is the subject, be exposed to jeers and ridicule?
But there is another reason, which in the present age renders the study of Natural History an object of importance to every well-wisher to the cause of Religion, who is desirous of exerting his faculties in its defence. For as enthusiasm and false religion have endeavoured to maintain their ground by a perversion of the text ofscripture, so also the patrons of infidelity and atheism have laboured hard to establish their impiety by a perversion of the text ofnature. To refute the first of these adversaries of truth and sound religion, it is necessary to be well acquainted with thewordof God; to refute the second, requires an intimate knowledge of hisworks; and no department can furnish him with more powerful arguments of every kind than the world of insects—every one of which cries out in an audible voice, There is a God—he is Almighty, all-wise, all-good—his watchful providence is ever, and every where, at work for the preservation of all things.
But since mankind in general are too apt to look chiefly at this world, and to regard things as important or otherwise in proportion as they are connected with sublunary interests, and promote our present welfare, I shall proceedfurther to prove that the study of insects may be productive of considerable utility, even in this view, and may be regarded in some sort as a necessary or at least a very useful concomitant of many arts and sciences.
The importance of insects to us both as sources of good or evil, I shall endeavour to prove at large hereafter; but for the present, taking this for granted, it necessarily follows that the study of them must also be important. For when we suffer from them, if we do not know the cause, how are we to apply a remedy that may diminish or prevent their ravages? Ignorance in this respect often occasions us to mistake our enemies for our friends, and our friends for our enemies; so that when we think to do good we only do harm, destroying the innocent and letting the guilty escape. Many such instances have occurred. You know the orange-coloured fly of the wheat, and have read the account of the damage done by this little insect to that important grain; you are aware also that it is given in charge to three little parasites to keep it within due limits; yet at first it was the general opinion of unscientific men, that these destroyers of our enemy were its parents, and the original source of all the mischief[53]. Middleton, in his "Agriculture of Middlesex," speaking of the Plant-louse that is so injurious to the bean, tells us that the lady-birds are supposed either to generate or to feed upon them[54]. Had he been an entomologist, he would have been in no doubt whether they were beneficial or injurious: on the contrary, he would haverecommended that they should be encouraged as friends to man, since no insects are greater devourers of the Aphides. The confounding of the apple Aphis (A. lanigera, Myzoxyla?[55]) that has done such extensive injury to our orchards, with others, has led to proceedings still more injurious. This is one of those species from the skin of which transpires a white cottony secretion. Some of the proprietors of orchards about Evesham, observing an insect which secreted a similar substance upon the poplar, imagined that from this tree the creature which they had found so noxious was generated; and in consequence of this mistaken notion cut down all their poplars[56]. The same indistinct ideas might have induced them to fell all their larches and beeches, since they also are infested by Aphides which transpire a similar substance. Had these persons possessed any entomological knowledge, they would have examined and compared the insects before they had formed their opinions, and being convinced that the poplar and apple Aphis are distinct species, would have saved their trees.
But could an entomological observer even ascertain the species of any noxious insect, still in many cases, without further information, he may fall short of his purpose of prevention. Thus we are told that in Germany the gardeners and country people, with great industry, gather whole baskets full of the caterpillar of the destructive cabbage moth (Mamestra Brassicæ), and then bury them, which, as Roesel well observes[57], is just as if we should endeavour to kill a crab by covering it with water; for, many of them being full grown and ready topass into their next state, which they do underground, instead of destroying them by this manœuvre, their appearing again the following year in greater numbers is actually facilitated. Yet this plan applied to our common cabbage caterpillar, which does not go underground, would succeed. So that some knowledge of the manners of an insect is often requisite to enable us to check its ravages effectually. With respect to noxious caterpillars in general, agriculturists and gardeners are not usually aware that the best mode of preventing their attacks is to destroy the female fly before she has laid her eggs, to do which the moth proceeding from each must be first ascertained. But if their research were carried still further, so as to enable them to distinguish the pupa and discover its haunts, and it would not be at all difficult to detect that of the greatest pest of our gardens, the cabbage butterfly, the work might be still more effectually accomplished. Some larvæ are polyphagous, or feed upon a variety of plants; amongst others that of the yellow-tail moth (Arctia chrysorhœa); yet gardeners think they have done enough if they destroy the web-like nests which so often deform our fruit-trees, without suspecting that new armies of assailants will wander from those on other plants which they have suffered to remain. Thus will thousands be produced in the following season, which, had they known how to distinguish them, might have been extirpated. Another instance occurred to me last year, when walking with a gentleman in his estate at a village in Yorkshire. Our attention was attracted by several circular patches of dead grass, each having a stick with rags suspended to it, placed in the centre. I at once discerned that the larva of the cock-chafer had eaten theroots of the grass, which being pulled up by the rooks that devour this mischievous grub, these birds had been mistaken by the tenant for the cause of the evil, and the rags were placed to frighten away his best friends. On inquiry why he had set up these sticks, he replied, "He could n't beer to see'd nasty craws pull up all'd gess, and sae he'd set'd bairns to hing up some aud clouts to flay 'em away. Gin he'd letten 'em alean they'd sean hev reated up all'd close." Nor could I convince him by all that I could say, that the rooks were not the cause of the evil. Even philosophers sometimes fall into gross mistakes from this species of ignorance. Dr. Darwin has observed, that destroying the beautiful but injurious woodpeckers is the only alternative for preventing the injury they do to our forest-trees by boring into them[58]; not being aware that they bore only those trees which insects have previously attacked, and that they diminish very considerably the number of such as are prejudicial to our forests.
From these facts it is sufficiently evident that entomological knowledge is necessary both to prevent fatal mistakes, and to enable us to check with effect the ravages of insects. But ignorance in this respect is not only unfit to remedy the evil; on the contrary, it may often be regarded as its cause. A large proportion of the most noxious insects in every country are not indigenous, but have been imported. It was thus that the moth (Galleria Mellonella) so destructive in bee-hives, and the asparagus beetle (Lema Asparagi) were made denizens of Sweden[59]. The insect that has destroyed all the peach-trees in St. Helena was imported from the Cape: and athome (not to mention bugs and cock-roaches) the great pest of our orchards, before mentioned, the apple Aphis, there is good reason to believe, was introduced with some foreign apple-trees. Now, extensive as is our commerce, it is next to impossible, by any precautions, to prevent the importation of these noxious agents. A cargo, or even a sample, of peas from North America might present us with that ravager of pulse, the pea-beetle (Bruchus Pisi); or the famed Hessian fly, which some years ago caused such trepidation in our cabinet, might be conveyed here in a ship-load of wheat. Leeuwenhoek's wolf (Tinea granella) might visit us, in a similar conveyance, from Holland or France. But though introduced, were Entomology a more general pursuit, their presence would soon be detected, and the evil at once nipt in the bud; whereas in a country where this science was not at all or little cultivated, they would most probably have increased to such an extent before they attracted notice, that every effort to extirpate them would be ineffectual.
It is needless to insist upon the importance of the study of insects, as calculated to throw light upon some of the obscurest points of general physiology; nor would it be difficult, though the task might be invidious, to point out how grossly incorrect and deficient are many of the speculations of our most eminent philosophers, solely from their ignorance of this important branch of Natural History. How little qualified would that physiologist be to reason conclusively upon the mysterious subject of generation, who should be ignorant of the wonderful and unlooked-for fact, brought to light by the investigations of an entomologist, that one sexual intercourse is sufficientto fertilize the eggs of numerous generations of Aphides! And how defective would be all our reasonings on the powers of nutrition and secretion, had we yet to learn that in insects both are in action unaccompanied by the circulating system and glands of larger animals!
In another point of view entomological information is very useful. A great deal of unnecessary mischief is produced, and unnecessary uneasiness occasioned, by what are called vulgar errors, and that superstitious reliance upon charms, which prevents us from having recourse to remedies that are really efficacious. Thus, for instance, eating figs and sweet things has been supposed to generate lice[60]. Nine larvæ of the moth of the wild teasel inclosed in a reed or goose quill have been reckoned a remedy for ague[61]. Matthiolus gravely affirms that every oak-gall contains either a fly, a spider, or a worm; and that the first foretells war, the second pestilence, and the third famine[62]. In Sweden the peasants look upon the grub of the cock-chafer as furnishing an unfailing prognostic whether the ensuing winter will be mild or severe; if the animal have a blueish hue (a circumstance which arises from its being replete with food) they affirm it will be mild, but on the contrary if it be white the weather will be severe: and they carry this so far as to foretell, that if the anterior part be white and the posterior blue, the cold will be most severe at the beginning of the winter. Hence they call this grubBemärkelse-mask, or prognostic worm[63]. A similar augury as to the harvest is drawn by the Danish peasants from the mites which infest the common dung beetle (Geotrupes stercorarius),called in DanishSkarnbosseorTorbist. If there are many of these mites between the fore feet, they believe that there will be an early harvest, but a late one if they abound between the hind feet[64]. The appearance of the death's head hawk-moth (Acherontia Atropos) has in some countries produced the most violent alarm and trepidation amongst the people, who, because it emits a plaintive sound, and is marked with what looks like a death's head upon its back, regarded it as the messenger of pestilence and death[65]. We learn from Linné that a similar superstition, built upon the black hue and strange aspect of that beetle, prevails in Sweden with respect toBlaps mortisaga, L.[66]; and in Barbadoes, according to Hughes, the ignorant deem the appearance of a certain grasshopper in their houses as a sure presage of illness to some of the family[67].
One would not think that the excrements of insects could be objects of terror, yet so it has been. Many species ofLepidoptera, when they emerge from the pupa state, discharge from their anus a reddish fluid, which, in some instances, where their numbers have been considerable, has produced the appearance of a shower of blood; and by this natural fact, all those bloody showers, recorded by historians as preternatural, and regarded where they happened as fearful prognostics of impending evils, are stripped of their terrors, and reduced to the class of events that happen in the common course of nature. That insects are the cause of these showers is no recent discovery; for Sleidan relates that in the year 1553 avast multitude of butterflies swarmed through a great part of Germany, and sprinkled plants, leaves, buildings, clothes and men, with bloody drops, as if it had rained blood[68]. But the most interesting account of an event of this kind is given by Reaumur, from whom we learn that in the beginning of July 1608 the suburbs of Aix, and a considerable extent of country round it, were covered with what appeared to be a shower of blood. We may conceive the amazement and stupor of the populace upon such a discovery, the alarm of the citizens, the grave reasonings of the learned. All agreed however in attributing this appearance to the powers of darkness, and in regarding it as the prognostic and precursor of some direful misfortune about to befall them. Fear and prejudice would have taken deep root upon this occasion, and might have produced fatal effects upon some weak minds, had not M. Peiresc, a celebrated philosopher of that place, paid attention to insects. A chrysalis which he preserved in his cabinet, let him into the secret of this mysterious shower. Hearing a fluttering, which informed him his insect was arrived at its perfect state, he opened the box in which he kept it. The animal flew out and left behind it a red spot. He compared this with the spots of the bloody shower, and found they were alike. At the same time he observed there was a prodigious quantity of butterflies flying about, and that the drops of the miraculous rain were not to be found upon the tiles, nor even upon the upper surface of the stones, but chiefly in cavities and places where rain could not easily come. Thus did this judicious observer dispel the ignorant fears and terror which a natural phenomenon had caused[69].
The same author relates an instance of the gardener of a gentleman being thrown into a horrible fright by digging up some of the curious cases, which I shall hereafter describe to you, of the leaf-cutter bees, and which he conceived to be the effect of witchcraft portending some terrible misfortune. By the advice of the priest of the parish he even took a journey from Rouen to Paris, to show them to his master: but he, happily having more sense than the man, carried them to M. Nollet, an eminent naturalist, who having seen similar productions was aware of the cause, and opening one of the cases, while the gardener stood aghast at his temerity, pointed out the grub that it contained, and thus sent him back with a light heart, relieved from all his apprehensions[70].
Every one has heard of the death-watch, and knows of the superstitious notion of the vulgar, that in whatever house its drum is heard one of the family will die before the end of the year. These terrors, in particular instances, where they lay hold of weak minds, especially of sick or hypochondriac persons, may cause the event that is supposed to be prognosticated. A small degree of entomological knowledge would relieve them from all their fears, and teach them that this heart-sickening tick is caused by a small beetle (Anobium tessellatum) which lives in timber, and is merely a call to its companion. Attention to Entomology may therefore be rendered very useful in this view, since nothing certainly is more desirable than to deliver the human mind from the dominion of superstitious fears, and false notions, which having considerable influence on the conduct of mankind are the cause of no small portion of evil.
But as we cannot well guard against the injuries produced by insects, or remove the evil, whether real or arising from misconceptions respecting them, which they occasion, unless we have some knowledge of them; so neither without such knowledge can we apply them, when beneficial, to our use. Now it is extremely probable that they might be made vastly more subservient to our advantage and profit than at present, if we were better acquainted with them. It is the remark of an author, who himself is no entomologist: "We have not taken animals enough into alliance with us. The more spiders there were in the stable, the less would the horses suffer from the flies. The great American fire-fly should be imported into Spain to catch mosquitos. In hot countries a reward should be offered to the man who could discover what insects feed upon fleas[71]." It would be worth our while to act upon this hint, and a similar one of Dr. Darwin. Those insects might be collected and preserved that are known to destroy the Aphides and other injurious tribes; and we should thus be enabled to direct their operations to any quarter where they would be most serviceable; but this can never be done till experimental agriculturists and gardeners are conversant with insects, and acquainted with their properties and economy. How is it that the Great Being of beings preserves the system which he has created from permanent injury, in consequence of the too great redundancy of any individual species, but by employing one creature to prey upon another, and so overruling and directing the instincts of all, that they may operate most where they are most wanted! We cannot better exercise the reasoning powers and facultieswith which he has endowed us, than by copying his example. We often employ the larger animals to destroy each other, but the smaller, especially insects, we have totally neglected. Some may think, perhaps, that in aiming to do this we should be guilty of presumption, and of attempting to take the government and direction of things out of the hands of Providence: but this is a very weak argument, which might with equal reason be adduced to prove that when rats and mice become troublesome to us, we ought not to have recourse to dogs, ferrets, and cats to exterminate them. When any species multiplies upon us, so as to become noxious, we certainly have a just right to destroy it, and what means can be more proper than those which Providence itself has furnished? We can none of us go further or do more than the Divine Will permits; and he will take care that our efforts shall not be injurious to the general welfare, or effect the annihilation of any individual species.
Again, with regard to insects that are employed in medicine or the arts, if the apothecary cannot distinguish a Cantharis or blister-beetle from a Carabus or Cetonia, both of which beetles I have found mixed with the former, how can he know whether his druggist furnishes him with a good or bad article? And the same observation may with still greater force apply to the dyer in his purchase of cochineal, since it is still more difficult to distinguish the wild sort from the cultivated. There are, it is probable, many insects that might be employed with advantage in both these departments: but unless Entomology be more generally studied by scientific men, who are the only persons likely to make discoveries of this kind, than it has hitherto been, we must not hopeto derive further profit from them. It seems more particularly incumbent upon the professors of the divine art of healing to become conversant with this as well as the other branches of Natural History; for not only do they derive some of their most useful drugs from insects, but many also of the diseases upon which they are consulted, as we shall see hereafter, are occasioned by them. For want of this kind of information medical men run the risk of confounding diseases perfectly distinct, at least as to the animal that causes them. It would be a most desirable thing to have professors in each branch of Natural History in our universities, and to make it indispensable, in order to the obtaining of any degree in Physic, that the candidate should have attended these lectures. We may judge from the good effects that the arts have derived from the present very general attention to Chemistry, how beneficial would be the consequence if Entomology were equally cultivated: and I shall conclude this paragraph with what I think may be laid down as an incontrovertible axiom:—That the profit we derive from the works of creation will be in proportion to the accuracy of our knowledge of them and their properties.
I trust I have now said enough to convince you and every thinking man that the study of insects, so far from being vain, idle, trifling, or unprofitable, may be attended with very important advantages to mankind, and ought at least to be placed upon a level with many other branches of science, against which such accusations are never alleged.
But I must not conceal from you that there are objectorswho will still return to the charge. They will say, "We admit that the pursuits of the entomologist are important when he directs his views to the destruction of noxious insects; the discovery of new ones likely to prove beneficial to man; and to practical experiments upon their medical and economical properties. But where are the entomologists that in fact pursue this course? Do they not in reality wholly disregard the economical department of their science, and content themselves with making as large a collection of species as possible; ascertaining the names of such as are already described; describing new ones; and arranging the whole in their cabinets under certain families and genera? And can a study with these sole ends in view deserve a better epithet than trifling? Even if the entomologist advance a step further, and invent a new system for the distribution of all known insects, can his laborious undertaking be deemed any other than busy idleness? What advantage does the world derive from having names given to ten or twenty thousand insects, of which numbers are not bigger than a pin's head, and of which probably not a hundredth part will ever be of any use to mankind?"
Now in answer to this supposed objection, which I have stated as forcibly as I am able, and which, as it may be, and often is, urged against every branch of Natural History as at present studied, well deserves a full consideration, I might in the first place deny that those who have the highest claim to rank as entomologists do confine their views to the systematic department of the science to the neglect of economical observations; and in proof of my assertion, I might refer abroad to a Linné, a Reaumur, a De Geer, a Huber, and various othernames of the highest reputation; and at home to a Ray, a Lister, a Derham, a Marsham, a Curtis, a Clark, a Roxburgh, &c. But I do not wish to conceal that though a large proportion of entomologists direct their views much further than to the mere nomenclature of their science, there exists a great number, probably the majority, to whom the objection will strictly apply. Now I contend, and shall next endeavour to prove, that entomologists of this description are devoting their time to a most valuable end; and are conferring upon society a benefit incalculably greater than that derived from the labours of many of those who assume the privilege of despising their pursuit.
Even in favour of the mere butterfly-hunter—he who has no higher aim than that of collecting apictureofLepidoptera, and is attached to insects solely by their beauty or singularity, it would not be difficult to say much. Can it be necessary to declaim on the superiority of a people amongst whom intellectual pleasures, however trifling, are preferred to mere animal gratifications? Is it a thing to be lamented that some of the Spitalfields weavers occupy their leisure hours in searching for theAdonisbutterfly (Polyommatus Adonis), and others of the more splendidLepidoptera[72], instead of spending them in playing at skittles or in an alehouse? Or is there in truth any thing more to be wished than that the cutlers of Sheffield were accustomed thus to employ theirSaint Mondays; and to recreate themselves after a hard day's work, by breathing the pure air of their surrounding hills, while in search of this "untaxedand undisputed game[73];" and that more of the Norwich weavers were fond of devoting their vacant time to plant-hunting, like Joseph Fox recorded by Sir James Smith as the first raiser of a Lycopodium from seed[74]?
Still more easy is it to advocate the cause of another description of entomologists—the general collectors. These, though not concerning themselves with the system, contribute most essentially to its advancement. We cannot expect that princes, noblemen, and others of high rank or large fortune, who collect insects, should be able or willing to give up the time necessary for studying them systematically: but their museums being accessible to the learned entomologist afford him the use of treasures which his own limited funds or opportunities could never have brought together. As to others of less consequence that content themselves with the title of collectors,they also have their use. Having devoted themselves to this one department, they become more expert at it, than the philosopher who combines deep researches with the collection of objects; and thus are many species brought together for the use of the systematist, that would otherwise remain unknown.
But to proceed to the defence of systematic entomologists.—These may be divided into two great classes: the first comprising those who confine themselves to ascertaining the names of the insects they collect; the second, those who, in addition, publish descriptions of new species; new arrangements of intricate genera; or extrications of entangled synonyms; and who, in other respects, actively contribute to the perfection of the system.
Now with regard to the first class, setting aside what may be urged in behalf of the study of insects considered as the work of the Creator, it is easy to show that, even with such restricted views, their pursuit is as commendable, and as useful both to themselves and the community, as many of those on which we look with the greatest respect. To say the least in their favour, they amuse themselves innocently, which is quite as much as can be urged for persons who recreate their leisure hours with music, painting, or desultory reading. They furnish themselves with an unfailing provision of that "grand panacea for thetædium vitæ"—employment—no unimportant acquisition, when even Gray was forced to exclaim, with reference to the necessity of "always having something going forward" towards the enjoyment of life, "Happy they who can create a rose-tree or erect a honey-suckle; that can watch the brood of a hen, or see afleet of their own ducklings launch into the water[75]!" and like the preceding class, they collect valuable materials for the use of more active labourers, being thus at least upon a par with the majority of book-collectors and antiquaries.
But this is the smallest half of the value of their pursuit. With what view is the study of the mathematics so generally recommended? Not certainly for any practical purpose—not to make the bulk of those who attend to them, astronomers or engineers. But simply to exercise and strengthen the intellect—to give the mind a habit of attention and of investigation. Now for all these purposes, if I do not go so far as to assert that the mere ascertaining of the names of insects is equal to the study of the mathematics, I have no hesitation in affirming that it is nearly as effectual; and with respect to giving a habit of minute attention, superior. Such is the intricacy of nature, such the imperfection of our present arrangements, that the discovery of the name of almost any insect is a problem, calling in all cases for acuteness and attention, and in some for a balancing of evidence, a calculation of the chances of error, as arduous as are required in a perplexed law-case; and a process of ratiocination not less strict than that which satisfies the mathematician. In proof of which assertion I need only refer any competent judge to the elaborate disquisitions of Laspeyres, called for by one work alone on the lepidopterous insects of a single district—theWiener Verzeichniss, which occupy above two hundred octavo pages[76], and must have cost the learned author nearlyas much labour of mind as theDuctor Dubitantiumdid Bishop Taylor.
Do not apprehend that this occasional perplexity is any deduction from the attractions of the science: though in itself, in some respects, an evil, it forms in fact to many minds one of the chief of them. The pursuit of truth, in whatever path, affords pleasure: but the interest would cease if she never gave us trouble in the chase. Horace Walpole used to say that from a child he could never bring himself to attend to any book that was not full of proper names; and the satisfaction which he felt in dry investigations concerning noble authors and obscure painters, is experienced by many an entomologist who spends hours in disentangling the synonymy of a doubtful species. Nor would it be easy to prove that the wordy researches of the one are not to every practical purpose as valuable as those of the other. We smile at the Frenchman told of by Menage, that was so enraptured with the study of heraldry and genealogy, as to lament the hard case of our forefather Adam, who could not possibly amuse himself with such investigations[77]. But many an entomologist who has felt the delicious sensation attendant upon the indisputable ascertainment of an insect's name after a long search, will feel inclined to indulge in similar grief for the unhappy lot of his successors, when all shall be smooth sailing in the science.
But in behalf of those who are more eminently entitled to be called entomologists—those who, not content with collecting and investigating insects, occupy themselves in naming and describing such as have been before unobserved; in instituting new genera or reformingthe old; and, to say all in one word, in perfecting the system of the science, still higher claims can be urged. Suppose that at this moment our dictionaries of the French and German languages were so very defective, that we were unable by the use of them to profit from the discoveries of their philosophers; the labours of a Michaelis being a sealed book to our theologists, and those of La Place to our astronomers. On this supposition, would not one of the most important literary undertakings be the compilation of more perfect dictionaries, and would not the humblest contributor to such an end be deemed most meritoriously engaged? Now precisely what an accurate dictionary of a particular language is towards enabling the world to participate in the discoveries published in that language, is a system of Entomology towards enabling mankind to derive advantage from any discoveries relative to insects. A good system of insects containing all the known species, arranged in appropriate genera, families, orders and classes, is in fact a dictionary, putting it within our power to ascertain the name of any given insect, and thus to learn what has been observed respecting its properties and history as readily as we determine the meaning of a new word in a lexicon. In order to impress upon you more forcibly the absolute need of such a system, I must enter into still further detail.
There is scarcely a country in which several thousand insects may not be found. Now, without some scientific arrangement, how is the observer of a new fact respecting any one of them, to point out to distant countries and to posterity the particular insect he had in view? Suppose an observer in England were to find a certain beetle which he had demonstrated to be a specific forconsumption; and that it was necessary that this insect, which there was reason to believe was common in every part of the world, should be administered in a recent state. Would he not be anxious to proclaim the happy discovery to sufferers in all quarters of the globe? As his remedy would not admit of transportation, he would have no other means than by describing it. Now the question is, whether, on the supposition that no system of Entomology existed, he would be able to do this, so as to be intelligible to a physician in North America, for instance, eager to administer so precious a medicine to his expiring patient? It would evidently be of no use to say that the specific was a beetle: there are thousands of different beetles in North America. Nor would size or colour be any better guide: there are hundreds of beetles of the same size and the same colour. Even the plant on which it fed would be no sufficient clue; for many insects, resembling each other to an unpractised eye, feed on the same plant; and the same insect in different countries feeds upon different plants. His only resource, then, would be a coloured figure and full description of it. But every entomologist knows that there exist insects perfectly distinct, yet so nearly resembling each other, that no engraving, nor any language other than that strictly scientific, can possibly discriminate them. After all, therefore, the chances are, that our discoverer's remedy, invaluable as it might be, must be confined to his own immediate neighbourhood, or to those who came to receive personal information from him. But with what ease is it made known when a system of the science exists! If the insect be already described, he has but to mention its generic and trivial names, andby aid of two words alone, every entomologist, though in the most distant region—whether a Swede, a German, or a Frenchman; whether a native of Europe, of Asia, of America, or of Africa, knows instantly the very species that is meant, and can that moment ascertain whether it be within his reach. If the species be new and undescribed, it is only necessary to indicate the genus to which it belongs, the species to which it is most nearly allied, and to describe it in scientific terms, which may be done in few words, and it can at once be recognised by every one acquainted with the science.
You will think it hardly credible that there should be so much difficulty in describing an insect intelligibly without the aid of system; but anargumentum ad hominem, supported by some other facts, will, I conjecture, render this matter more comprehensible. You have doubtless, like every one else, in the showery days of summer, felt no little rage at theflies, which at such times take the liberty of biting our legs, and contrive to make a comfortable meal through the interstices of their silken or cotton coverings. Did it, I pray, ever enter into your conception, that these blood-thirsty tormentors are a different species from those flies which you are wont to see extending the lips of their little proboscis to a piece of sugar or a drop of wine? I dare say not. But the next time you have sacrificed one of the former to your just vengeance, catch one of the latter and compare them. I question if, after the narrowest comparison, you will not still venture a wager that they are the very same species. Yet you would most certainly lose your bet. They are not even of the same genus—one belonging to the genus Musca (M. domestica), and the other to the genus Stomoxys(S. calcitrans); and on a second examination you will find that, however alike in most respects, they differ widely in the shape of their proboscis; that of the Stomoxys being a horny sharp-pointed weapon, capable of piercing the flesh, while the soft blunt organ of the Musca is perfectly incompetent to any such operation. In future, while you no longer load the whole race of the house-fly with the execrations which properly belong to a quite different tribe, you will cease being surprised that an ordinary description should be insufficient to discriminate an insect. It is to this insufficiency that we must attribute our ignorance of so many of the insects mentioned by the older naturalists, previously to the systematic improvements of the immortal Linné: and to the same cause we must refer the impossibility of determining what species are alluded to in the accounts of many modern travellers and agriculturists who have been ignorant of Entomology as a science. Instances without number of this impossibility might be adduced, but I shall confine myself to two.
One of the greatest pests of Surinam and other low regions in South America, is the insect called in the West Indies, where it is also troublesome, the chigoe (Pulex penetrans), a minute species, to the attacks of which I shall again have occasion to advert. This insect is mentioned by almost all the writers on the countries where it is found. Not less than eight or ten of them have endeavoured to give a full description of it, and some of them have even figured it; and yet, strange to say, it was not certainly known whether it was a flea (Pulex, L.) or a mite (Acarus, L.), till a competent naturalist undertook to investigate its history, and in a short paper in theSwedish Transactions[78]proved that Linné was not mistaken in referring it to the former tribe.
The second instance of the insufficiency of popular description is even more extraordinary. In 1788 an alarm was excited in this country by the probability of importing, in cargoes of wheat from North America, the insect known by the name of the Hessian fly, whose dreadful ravages will be adverted to hereafter. However the insect tribes are in general despised, they had on that occasion ample revenge. The privy council sat day after day anxiously debating what measures should be adopted to ward off the danger of a calamity, more to be dreaded, as they well knew, than the plague or pestilence. Expresses were sent off in all directions to the officers of the customs at the different outports respecting the examination of cargoes—dispatches written to the ambassadors in France, Austria, Prussia, and America, to gain that information of the want of which they were now so sensible: and so important was the business deemed, that the minutes of council and the documents collected from all quarters fill upwards of two hundred octavo pages[79]. Fortunately England contained one illustrious naturalist, the most authentic source of information on all subjects which connect Natural History with Agriculture and the Arts, to whom the privy council had the wisdom to apply; and it was by Sir Joseph Banks's entomological knowledge, and through his suggestions, that they were at length enabled to form some kind of judgement on the subject. This judgement wasafter all, however, very imperfect. As Sir Joseph Banks had never seen the Hessian fly, nor was it described in any entomological system, he called for facts respecting its nature, propagation, and economy, which could be had only from America. These were obtained as speedily as possible, and consist of numerous letters from individuals; essays from magazines; the reports of the British minister there, &c. &c. One would have supposed that from these statements, many of them drawn up by farmers who had lost entire crops by the insect, which they profess to have examined in every stage, the requisite information might have been acquired. So far however was this from being the case, that many of the writers seem ignorant whether the insect be a moth, a fly, or what they term a bug. And though from the concurrent testimony of several its being a two-winged fly seemed pretty accurately ascertained, no intelligible description is given, from which any naturalist can infer to what genus it belongs, or whether it is a known species. With regard to the history of its propagation and economy the statements were so various and contradictory, that though he had such a mass of materials before him, Sir Joseph Banks was unable to reach any satisfactory conclusion.
Nothing can more incontrovertibly demonstrate the importance of studying Entomology as a science than this fact. Those observations, to which thousands of unscientific sufferers proved themselves incompetent, would have been readily made by one entomologist well versed in his science. He would at once have determined the order and genus of the insect, and whether it was a known or new species; and in a twelvemonth at furthest hewould have ascertained in what manner it made its attacks, and whether it were possible that it might be transmitted along with grain into a foreign country; and on these solid data he could have satisfactorily pointed out the best mode of eradicating the pest, or preventing the extension of its ravages.
But it is not merely in travellers and popular observers that the want of a systematic knowledge of Entomology is so deplorable. A great portion of the labours of the profoundest naturalists has been from a similar cause lost to the world. Many of the insects concerning which Reaumur and Bonnet have recorded the most interesting circumstances, cannot, from their neglect of system, be at this day ascertained[80]. The former, as Beckmann[81]states on the authority of his letters, was before his death sensible of his great error in this respect: but Bonnet, with singular inconsistency, constantly maintained the inutility of system, even on an occasion when, from his ignorance of it, Sir James Smith, speaking of his experiments on the barberry, found it quite impossible to make him comprehend what plant he referred to[82].
So great is the importance of a systematic arrangement of insects. Yet no such arrangement has hitherto been completed. Various fragments towards it indeed exist. But the work itself is in the state of a dictionary wanting a considerable proportion of the words of the language it professes to explain; and placing those, which it does contain, in an order often so arbitrary anddefective, that it is difficult to discover even the page containing the word you are in search of. Can it be denied, then, that they are most meritoriously employed who devote themselves to the removal of these defects—to the perfecting of the system—and to clearing the path of future economical or physiological observers from the obstructions which now beset it? And who that knows the vast extent of the science, and how impossible it is that a divided attention can embrace the whole, will contend that it is not desirable that some labourers in the field of literature should devote themselves entirely and exclusively to this object? Who that is aware of the importance of the comprehensive views of a Fabricius, an Illiger, or a Latreille, and the infinite saving of time of which their inquiries will be productive to their followers, will dispute their claim to rank amongst the most honourable in science?
II. No objection, I think, now remains against addicting ourselves to entomological pursuits, but that which seems to have the most weight with you, and which indeed is calculated to make the deepest impression upon the best minds—I mean the charge of inhumanity and cruelty. That the science of Entomology cannot be properly cultivated without the death of its objects, and that this is not to be effected without putting them to some pain, must be allowed; but that this substantiates the charge of cruelty against us I altogether deny. Cruelty is an unnecessary infliction of suffering, when a person is fond of torturing or destroying God's creatures from mere wantonness, with no useful end in view; or when, if their death be useful and lawful, he has recourse tocircuitous modes of killing them, where direct ones would answer equally well. This is cruelty, and this with you I abominate; but not the infliction of death when a just occasion calls for it.