came to be singled out by them; and thus he accounts for it. It was his habit not to drink at his meals; but in the night growing thirsty, he often sipped some liquid out of a vessel made of juniper wood. Inspecting this very narrowly, he observed, in the chinks between the ribs, a white line, which when viewed under a lens he found to consist of innumerable acari, precisely the same as those he had voided. Various experiments were tried with them, and a preparation of rhubarb was found to destroy them most effectually. He afterwards discovered them in vessels containing acids, and often under the bungs of casks. In the instance here recorded, the dysentery, or diarrhea, was evidently produced by these acari.

After stating some questionable cases in which acari are supposed to have been connected with, if not the cause of scabies, Mr. Kirby says, 'I shall now produce two instances where acari were evidently concerned. Dr. Mead, from the German ephemerides, relates the miserable case of a French nobleman, from whose eyes, nostrils, mouth, and urinary passage, animalcules of a red color, and excessively minute, broke forth day and night attended by the most horrible and excruciating pains, and at length occasioned his death. The account further says, that they were produced from his corrupted blood. This was probably a fancy originating in their red color: but the whole history, whether we consider the size and color of the animals, or the places from which they issue, is inapplicable to larve or maggots, and agrees very well with acari, some of which, particularly A. autumnalis, are of a bright red color. The other case, and a very similar one, is that recorded by Mouffet of lady Penruddock; concerning whom he expressly tells us, that acari swarmed in every part of her body-her head, eyes, nose, lips, gums, the soles of her feet, &c., tormenting her day and night, till, in spite of every remedy, all the flesh of her body being consumed, she was at length relieved by death from this terrible state of suffering. Mouffet attributes her disease to the acurus scabiei, but from the symptoms and fatal result it seems to have been a different and much more terrific animal. He supposes, in this instance, the insect to have been generated by drinking goat's milk too copiously. This, if correct, would lead to a conjecture that it might have been the A. lactis, L.' These cases, as he says, will demonstrate that acari, as well as pediculi are the causes of diseases in the human frame: he proposes to distinguish generally all acarine diseases by the name acariosis.

Genus 4. Scorpio.—Antennæ none; legs eight, besides two chela, or hands, seated on the forepart of the head; eyes eight, three of them on each side of the thorax, and two on the back; palpi two, projecting cheliform; lip bifid, cauda long, jointed, and terminated by a sharp crooked sting; on the underside, between the breast and abdomen, are two instruments resembling a comb. All the genera are armed with a slightly pungent sting; none of them, however, are dangerous, except in hot climates; they prey upon worms, spiders, flies, &c.; and even on one another with considerable fury.

There are ten species, all of which are of warmer climates than our own. According to M. Manpertuis, they are all viviparous; the bod of the pregnant female exhibiting, when dissected, between forty and fifty young. Each of these is separated from the rest by a thin membrane, while all are united by a common filament. This philosopher, in order to ascertain the strength of their venom, bred a great number together, and let them loose upon dogs and other animals, and he found that sometimes the sting was so poisonous as to cause the whole body of the wounded animal to swell, the consequences of which were frequently violent reaching, convulsions, and death. At other times he found the stings of the same species almost harmless. They cast their skins, like spiders, occasionally.

Leuwenhoek discovered an opening on each side of the sting for the emission, as he supposes, of poison, which he thinks is only discharged when that weapon is buried in the wound it makes. The principal species is,

S. afer: African scorpion. The combs have thirteen teeth; the hands are slightly heart-shaped and hairy. It inhabits Persia, India, and some parts of Africa. The body is of a glossy brownish-black; the incisures of the abdomen yellow; the first joint of the tail serrate. None are so remarkable for size and the malignity of their poison as this. It has been seen ten inches long, when measured from the end of the claw to the extremity of the tail. The general color being of a dark brown, it is not easily distinguished from the rotten wood and furniture under or within which it lurks. The tail is the reservoir which contains the poison, which is deposited near the extremity, from which it is ejected through two very small holes, one on each side the tip of the sting. These are so very minute, as to elude the sight of any but a very accurate observer, with the assistance of glasses. This species is very much dreaded in Africa, where the activity of the venom is frequently productive of serious evils. Most families in Morocco, which is much infested with this reptile, keep a bottle of scorpions, infused in olive oil, which is used whenever any person is stung by them; for though, it is said, the scorpion carries an antidote in itself, it is not always to be caught, as it often stings a person while asleep, and disappears before he awakes, or thinks of looking for it; in which case the body of the live scorpion cannot be procured. It is necessary to bind the part, it possible, above the place stung, then to cauterise, and afterwards scarify the puncture, to prevent the venom from pervading the system; this method is sometimes effectual, and sometimes fails, according to the situation of the part wounded, or the nature of the scorpion, some being more poisonous than others; but where the flesh of the reptile can be procured, the cure is said to be far more certain.

Class III.-MYRIAPODA.

The insects we class under this modern name were included by Linné in the two genera that follow, namely, scolopendra and julus. Fabricius, in the Supplement to his Entomologia Systematic,

Fam. I. CHILOGNATHA. Genera 1. Glomeris. 2. Julus. 3. Polydesmus. 4. Pollyxenus. Fam. II. SYNGNATHA. Genera 5. Scutigera. 6. Scolopendra.

Lamarck arranged them with the arachnides, into three genera, 1. SCOLOPENDA; 2. SCUTIGERA 3. JULUs; and, in his last work, he had adopted a fourth genus, POLLYXENUS.

Dr. Leach says, 'All the myriapoda have their head distinct from the body, furnished with two antennæ. Mandibles simple, incisive. All or most of the segments of the body furnished with two or four legs. The nervous system is composed of a series of ganglia, one in each segment of the body: these ganglia are brought into communication with each other by a longitudinal bundle of nerves; or, as it is generally, but improperly, denominated, by a spinal marrow.'

Genus 1. Scolopendra.-Antenna setaceous; palpi two, filiform and united between the jaws; lip toothed and cleft; body long, depressed, consisting of numerous transverse segments; legs numerous; generally as many on each side as there are segments of the body. Of thirteen known species, three are common to this country. In Latin these animals have obtained the name of centipedes, from the number of their feet or legs; one of the species having literally 100 legs on each side. Some of this genus live beneath the bark of decayed trees, or are found below stones and garden boxes; others inhabit fresh and salt waters; and they are all remarkable for the quickness of their general motions, and of that with which they seize other insects.

It has been asserted that, when some scolopendra are cut to pieces, the segments, like those of the polypi, are capable of reproducing entire animals, but the fact is not certain. Mr. Maloet relates the history of a man, who for three years had a violent pain at the lower part of the forehead, near the root of the nose, at length he felt an itching, and afterwards something moving within his nostril, which he brought away with his finger; it was a worm of the centiped kind, an inch and a half long, which ran swiftly. It lived five or six days among tobacco. The patient was free of his pain ever after. Mr. Littre mentions a like case, in 1708, of a larger centiped voided at the nose, after it had thrown the woman, in whose frontal sinus it was, into convulsions and almost deprived her of reason. Hist. Acad. Science, 1753. Remarkable species are:-(1.) S. coleoptra. Having fourteen long legs on each side; the body scutellate. It is found in many parts of Europe. The antennæ are yellow, and as long

shanks rough. (2.) S. gigantea. Having seventeen legs on each side; tail with two hooked styles. An American insect. (3.) S. clypeata. Having thirty legs on each side; the body brown and rough; the head shielded. This is found in Tranquebar. The body is divided into sixteen narrow segments, which are substriate and rough, with raised dots; the head is covered with a rounded entire shield; the antennæ are short and pale; the legs pale; and the tail is emarginate. (4.) S. electrica. Having seventy legs on each side; the body is linear. It inhabits Europe, and our own country, in decayed wood, and shines in the dark. The body is very flat, tawny, with a black line down the back. (5.) Phosphorea. Having seventy-six legs on each side. It is an Asiatic insect, and shines like a glowworm in the dark. The head is ovate, yellowish, with two grooved lines, and another transverse one; the antennæ are subulate and ferruginous, with fourteen articulations; the body is filiform, and about as thick as a goose-quili, purplish, with two parallel lines. It has been known to fall from the air into a vessel sailing on the Indian Ocean, 1000 miles from any land. (6.) S. occidentalis. Having 123 legs on each side. It inhabits America. The body is ferruginous; the antennæ have fourteen articulations. (7.) S. Gabrielis. Having 148 legs on each side; the body is yellowish. It inhabits Italy, and is four times as large as the S. electrica. The antennæ are short, of fourteen articulations; the tail semi-oval, with an appendage and two short styles.

Genus 2. Julus. Has the lip crenated and emarginated; palpi two, and filiform; body long, semi-cylindrical, and consisting of numerous transverse segments; legs numerous. Fabricius, who has supplied many new species, distinguishes it inerely by the lip and antennæ; the first of which, he observes, is crenated and emarginate, and the latter moniliform: the structure of the body, legs, &c., constitute a secondary character. Most of them can move backwards or forwards with equal facility.

The species are ascertained chiefly by the number of legs. Such as (1.) J. ovatus. Legs each side twenty. Lin. Inhabits the seas of Europe. (2.) J. complanatus. Legs each side thirty; body flattish; tail pointed. Fabr. J. com plunatus, Linn., De Geer, &c. Scolopendra Iulacea, Scop. Native of Europe. Linné describes the antennæ of this insect as being clavated, which is the case, though slightly. (3.) J. depressus. Legs each side thirty; body flattish; tail rounded and entire. Fabr. An Indian species of very large size, the head of which is brown, and the segments rough, gray, and prominent each side. Lund. (4.) J. Indus. Legs each side 115. Lin. Inhabits India. (5.) J. sabulosus. Legs each side 120. Linn. J. glabro, &c. Ray. Found on the nut in Europe. (6.) J. marimus. Legs each side 134. Linn. A large species found in South America. Savi has described a J. fætidissimus, which emits a yellow fœtid fluid from its body, which stains the skin red, so that neither friction nor washing will immediately remove it.

PART IV.

HISTORY OF ENTOMOLOGY AS A

SCIENCE.

We cannot regard entomology as entitled to rank with the sciences until the arrangements of the immortal Linné had assimilated it with those other natural tribes, upon whose structure and economy his labors have thrown such essential light. As we have noticed the first and last editions of his Systema Naturæ in our introduction, we shall now specify a few entomological works that appeared between them.

In 1736 and 1737 the entire works of Swammerdam were first published under the title of Biblia Naturæ, sive Historia Insectorum Belgia, cum versione Latinâ, H. D. Gaubii, et vita auctoris, per A. Boerhaave. Such was the apathy of the public, in regard to works of this description, that no bookseller would venture to print this work at his own risk; and the means of Swammerdam were inadequate to its production. At the death of the writer, M. Thevenot, his friend, became possessed of his papers, and among the rest of the MS. of the Biblia Naturæ. After remaining with him some time, it passed into the hands of Du Verney, an able anatomist, who deposited it for another considerable period in his own cabinet, until the illustrious Boerhaave purchased and gave it to the world.

Linné himself, at this period, wrote several tracts on the subject of entomology; which are printed in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Upsal. One of these appeared in 1739, under the title of Om Renarus Bromskulor i Lapland; and another dated Stockholm, in the same year, Tal om Märkwardighter uti Insecterne. In 1746 we find a paper, jointly the production of Linnæus and De Geer, relative to the lantern-fly of China (fulgora candeleria); and about the same time his Fauna Suecica, an enlarged and improved edition of which was published in 1761. The elegant panorpa coa, a scarce species at that period, forms the subject of a small Linnæan paper in 1747. His dissertations Miracula Insectorum, and Noxa Insectorum, bear the same date, 1752: they were both printed at Upsal, and the latter is particularly valuable, from the object in the contemplation of the writer. Six years after this he produced a dissertation called Pandora Insectorum; the year after, a paper on the coccus; and in 1761 his Fundamenta Entomologiæ, a book, in those days, of considerable value as an elementary work, or introduction to this study. A translation of it by W. Curtis was printed at London in 1772. His last entomological paper is upon the genus pausus, a coleopterous insect distinguished by the magnitude of its an

tennæ.

In 1738 Lesser, a clergyman of Nördhausen, published a work entitled Insecto-Theologia, oder Vernunft und Schriftmässiger Versuch wie ein mensch durch aufmercksame Betrachtung derer sonst wenig geachteten, Insecten, &c. Frankfort und Leipzig, 8vo. It was translated into French by Lyonet in 1742, and is chiefly remarkable for its grave attempts to rectify the abuse of insects in theology; in which he points out the gross outrage on reason committed by

the pagans, in making certain insects the idols of their worship; and remarks how much more absurd it must appear, that the Jews and even Christians should have followed their example. He tells us that the Jews are accused of stating many wonderful things relative to insects; such as that Solomon and his workmen employed a worm to shape the stones of the temple, which insect, named schamir, cut and broke them to pieces in places where applied. They add that it was the figure of a grain of barley, and was kept in a leaden box, because, had it reached any rocks, it would have cleft and destroyed them. Among the legends of Catholic superstition he selects other equally remarkable anecdotes. Baldus, he says, in order to prove the real presence in the eucharist, relates that a number of bees being found on holy ground, paid it homage, and carried a portion of it respectfully to their hive. And that St. Francis, once walking in a garden, saw a grasshopper, which immediately quitted the plant it sat upon, and perched on his hand ; he ordered it to sing to the praises of God, and, with a pretty loud voice, it immediately began a very fine psalm!

The folio work of L'Admiral, entitled Naawkeurige Waarneemingen van Gestaltverwisselende gekorwene Diertjes, was published at Amsterdam in 1740. It contains a series of elaborately finished etchings of European insects, comprehending about fifty species of the larger lepidopterous tribes. These are represented in a heavy but ingenious manner, in various attitudes, on branches of the different kinds of plants on which they feed. The work was begun in numbers, and intended to contain 100 plates and 400 pages of letter-press. But this design was never completed. There are few copies with more than twenty-five plates, and about five pages of letter-press. Mr. Donovan had a copy containing thirty-two plates, and twenty pages.

In 1741 was published Schæffer's Icones Insectorum circa Ratisbonam Indigenorum, in 3 vols. 4to., the plates being colored. His classification differs from that of Linné, and approaches to that proposed by Geoffroy. He divided insects into seven orders, which he termed classes: 1. Coleoptero-macroptera, those with their elytra crustaceous through their whole length, and extending beyond the abdomen wher closed. 2. C. microptera, those with crustaceous elytra, shorter than the abdomen. 3. Half-hymenoptera, such as have their elytra half crustaceous, or becoming toward their extremities membranaceous. 4. Hymeno-lepidoptera, insects with transparent or membranaceous wings, imbricated with scales. 5. Hymeno-gymnoptera, those with four naked membranaceous wings. 6. Diptera, insects with two wings. 7. Aptera, those without wings.

In 1743 Mr. George Edwards, of London, published the first volume of his Natural History of Uncommon Birds, and of some other rare and undescribed animals, 4to. Three other volumes appeared in the course of eight years, in which many insects are figured.

In 1744 was published at Stockholm, by De Geer, a little work in 8vo., entitled Tal om nyttan,

som Insectere ochderas sharshadande, tilskynda oss, pointing out the advantages of cultivating the natural history of insects. It is considered the first work that appeared on this subject.

In 1746 a miscellaneous work appeared at Nuremberg, Der Montalich-herausgegebenen Insecten Belustigung, by Rosel of Nuremberg, a miniature painter of genius. The work is in 4to. Two other volumes appeared in 1749 and 1755. To these a fourth was added by a relation (Kleemannir), after his death in 1761; and after that period three other parts.

About 1749, or perhaps earlier, appeared another English entomological work by Benjamin Wilks, entitled the English Moths and Butterflies, together with the Plants on which they feed and are usually found. The greater portion of this work is copied from the most celebrated foreign writers of the day; but the imposition was not discovered until pointed out by Rösel, in the third volume of his Insecten Belustigung. Wilks also published Twelve new Designs of Butterflies, a work of but little use in point of scientific information, though sometimes quoted.

The first volume of the important work of haron Charles De Geer, entitled Memoires pour servir à l'Histoire des Insectes, was printed at Stockholm in 1752, and was received with great satisfaction by every competent judge: the continuation was expected with impatience; but nine years elapsed before the second volume appeared, and it was altogether twenty-six from its commencement to its termination. It was completed in 1778, a year which also closed the author's life.

The system developed in the last volume of De Geer's Memoirs, and that of Geoffroy published in his Histoire Abrégée des Insectes, 1764, are the connecting links between the arrangement first proposed by Linnæus and the more modern systems: as De Geer's, however, was only given to the world in his last volume, published eleven years after the last edition of the Systema Naturæ, we may here exhibit that of Geoffroy. Its principal merit consists in dividing the coleoptera into primary sections, according to the number of the joints of the tarsi. He comprises all the insect tribes in the six following classes: 1. Coleoptera; 2. Hemiptera; 3. Tetraptera alis farinaceis; 4. Tetraptera alis nudis; 5. Diptera; 6. Aptera. The first class corresponds with the Linnæan coleoptera; the second is more accurately regulated by the form of the proboscis; the third agrees with the lepidoptera, having the wings covered with fine powder; the naked wingtribe unite the neuroptera and hymenoptera; the diptera and aptera are the same with the Linnaan crders.

And now (1767) we come to the date of the last edition of Linné's system. It is in this, as in almost every other department of natural history, invaluable for its perspicuity and simplicity. Building his orders on the character of a single set of organs, the wings, and the varieties of his genera, on the character of particular parts of the head, especially of the antennæ, it is astonishing how nearly his artificial arrangement approaches a natural one. There are, indeed, as Dr. Leach has justly observed, other characters

We

which ought not to be neglected; and although they may be too minute to be regarded by the superficial observer, yet the man of science, who wishes to study the philosophy of classification, can have no doubt as to the superior accuracy of modern investigation and description which take into consideration every possible character, external as well as internal. The simplicity of the general distribution proposed by Linnæus,' continues this able writer, the celebrity of his name, and the princely patronage under which he wrote, conspired, with other favorable circumstances, to render the science more universally cultivated, admired, and respected about his time, than it appears to have been at any former period. Much credit is undoubtedly due to this great man for his entomological labors. must not, however, be so unjust as he was, and neglect to acknowledge the merits of his predecessors, who wrote under less favorable circumstances, but nevertheless excelled in this department of science; and to whom Linnæus stands in a very high degree indebted. In the works of Aristotle and Pliny, in those of Aldrovandus and Swammerdam, as well as in those of our countrymen, Ray, Willoughby, Lister, and various others (whose works we have noticed), we perceive, with some variations, the grand outline on which he has founded his arrangement. It was from these valuable sources that he gained the materials, from which he has selected, with profound judgment, and the greatest success, the valuable matter, carefully and industriously separating the dross. The characters of his orders and genera are to be found in several earlier publications, as are descriptions of many of the species. But he has concentrated these scattered rays of science, with so much skill and industry, that we must admit, that to him the science is indebted for that firm foundation on which it now rests. His style throughout is concise and expressive, but in many instances it is so laconic, that it is impossible even to guess at the animals descr.bed.'

We should not omit to notice the lasting benefit conferred on natural history by Linné, in the happy invention of the nomen triviale, the trivial name, in which he expresses the peculiarity of any species by a single term added to its generic appellation. These names are current like money, it has well been observed, and of similar utility to the proper names of men.

The application of trivial names to the butterfly and moth tribes in the Systema Naturæ, will be a striking instance of their utility. To prevent confusion the genus phalena is distributed into sections, distinguished by the terms of bombyces, noctuæ, geometra, tortrices, pyralides, tinæa, and alucita. The bomb yces and noctuæ, which are so much alike, that the females of the bombyces are with great difficulty distinguished from the noctuæ, are named promiscuously. All the geometræ have their names terminating in aria and ata, according as their antennæ are setaceous or pectinated :-The tortrices, in aria; the pyralides, in alis; the tinnæ, in ella; and the alucitæ, in dactyla; so that it is evident, from the termination, to what section the insect is to be referred.

Butterflies are divided into sections, by the names of equites, heliconii, danai, nymphales, and plebei. In the vast multitude of butterflies, the greatest part of which are foreign and extra European. and to whose food and manner of life we are utter strangers, it was impossible to give significant trivial names. Linnæus, therefore, by way of simile, has taken the names of the equites from the Trojan history. These consist, as it were, of two troops or bodies: of which one contains the sable, and as it were mourning nobles, having red or bloody spots at the basis of their wings. These receive names from the Trojan nobles; and as Priam was king of Troy, the most splendid among these bear his name. The other body, ornamented with a variety of gay colors, are distinguished by the names of the Grecian heroes; and, as in both armies there were kings as well as officers of an inferior rank, those elegant butterflies, whose hinder wings resembled tails, were distinguished by some royal name. Thus, when Paris is mentioned (knowing from history that he was a Trojan, and of royal blood) we find him among those of the first section; i. e. those of a sable color, spotted

in the breast with red, and having their hinder wings resembling tails. When Agamemnon is named, we remember him to be a noble Greek, and find him among those nobles which have variegated and swallow-tailed wings. But when Nereus is spoken of, we readily know him to belong to the last section, having wings but no tails. The second class, which contains the heliconii, derive their names from the muses, as Urania. The names of the sons and daughters of Danaus are bestowed on the third section. And as these species are subdivided into two other sections, viz. the white and parti-colored, the system is so arranged, that the white ones preserve the names of the daughters of Danaus, and the parti-colored ones those of the sons of Egyptus: so that it is evident from the name itself to what section the butterfly is to be referred. The names of the fourth section, nymphales, are taken from various nymphs of antiquity; and those of the fifth, plebeii, from different men among the ancients, whose names are worthy of remembrance.

We We may now conveniently exhibit the system of De Geer :

PARTICULAR CLASSES OR GENERA. 1. Scaled wings. Spiral tongue. (Lepidoptera.) 2. Membranous naked wings. No teeth or tongue. (Trichoptera ephemerina.) 3. Membranous equal recticulated wings. Teeth. (Rest of neuroptera.)

4. Membranous unequal wings. Having teeth and sting, or borer, in the female. (Hymenoptera.)

5. Membranous wings. Tongue bent under the breast. (Homoptera.)

6. Membranous wings. Elytra, half coriaceous and half membranous, crossed. Tongue bent under the breast. (Hemiptera; leach.) 7. Membranous wings. Elytra coriaceous, or semi-crustaceous, aliform. Having teeth. (Orthoptera.)

8. Membranous wings. Elytra hard and crustaceous. Having teeth. (Coleoptera.)

9. Membranous wings. Poisers. A tongue. No teeth. (Diptera.)

10. Membranous wings. The male has neither poisers, teeth, or tongue. The female has a tongue in the breast, but no wings. (Coc cus, L.)

11. Wingless. Tongue. Six legs. (Aphanip tera.)

12. Wingless. Head and trunk distinct. Six legs. (Hexapod aptera, termes, psocus.) 13. Wingless. Head united to the trunk. Eight or ten legs. (Octoped aptera, arachnida, crustacea.)

14. Wingless. Head and trunk distinct. Fourteen legs or more. (Polypod aptera, crustacea.)

might suggest to Fabricius the idea of making them discriminative of all insects.

Entomological works become now so numerous, that we can only notice the new systems, or considerable improvements: in 1770 appeared, in 8vo. A Catalogue of British Insects, by J. R.