Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 8, ELE-FOR

236
Hiftory
E N T O M
vegetable matter, which if left to undergo the putrefac¬
tive procefs, on the furface of the ground, might taint
the atmofphere Avith peftilential vapours, prelerve the
air pure for the refpiration of man and other animals.
Prefervation of Inf eels m Cabinets.
In' collefting infects, both male and female ought if
poflible to be procured 5 and the time of the year when
they are taken ought to be noted. Specimens with in¬
jured wings or antennae muft be rejected.
For collefting infects in their perfe£t date, a fort
of forceps are made ufe of, which have their extre¬
mities covered with gauze. Befides thefe the en-
tomologift, in his walks, Ihould be furnilhed with
a pincufhion, ftored with pins of various fxzes, and a tin
box lined with cork, of a convenient fize for the
pocket, in which the infers when caught are to be
placed ; the lepidopterous infefts being firft carefully
killed by fqueezing their thorax, left their fluttering
fhould injure their wings. Coleopterous infefts are
rnoft expeditioufly killed by being immerfed in boiling
water •, and thofe who prefer this method may carry
them home without injury in common pillboxes. Moft
infetfts are killed with a few drops of fpirit of turpentine j
the lepidoptera and hymenoptera may eafily be killed
by being ftuck through with a pin dipt in aquafortis.
When the infers are killed they are to be transfixed
with pins, their wings, antennae, and feet fpread out and
kept difplayed. In fome of the lepidoptera, two fpe-
cimens fhould be preferved} the wings in the one dif¬
played, and in the other placed as much as poflible in
their natural pofition.
Infefts may likewife be collefted by breeding them
from their larvae ; and this, when it is convenient, is by
O L O G Y.
far the beft method for procuring fine fpecimens *, it is
chiefly praclifed with the lepidopterous kinds. When
the caterpillars are taken, they are to be fed on the
leaves of the plant or tree on which they Avere found,
and kept in a box with fome moift earth at the bottom ;
they Avill afterwards turn into a chryfalis, either by go¬
ing* into the earth, by fphining a web and enclofing
themfelves in it, or by changing into a pupa obteBa^ ac¬
cording to their kinds. Having continued in this ftate
their appointed time, the perfect infeft will come forth,
and muft then be killed before it has injured its wings
by flying.
Lepidopterous infers are likewife to be colle&ed in
their pupa ftate, by feeking for them under the pro-
jeftions of garden Avails, pales, and out-houfes, fummer-
houfes, &c. or by digging for them in the winter
months under the trees they feed on. When thus dug
up, they are to be put into a box Avith moift earth, and
kept till they come out.
When the infe&s are prepared in this manner, they
are to be placed in the cabinet, which may confift of
boxes or draAvers deep enough to hold a long pin, and
lined on the bottom with cork, or Avith wax j the in¬
fers of each order in drawers by themfelves; and the
different genera clofe together. The generic and trivial
name of each infeft is to be written on a piece of
paper, fixed to the bottom by the fame pin which fup-
ports the infe61. The drawers muft be made to fhut
very clofe, fo as to exclude the duft and minute infe&s j
fome cover them with glafs. A little camphor in each
drawer is likevvife ufeful.
Infers of the aptera order, fuch as fpiders, Jcolo-
pendrse, juli, &c. are beft preferved in fome kind of
fpirits. The onifei and cancri may be preferved like
beetles.
HISTORY OF ENTOMOLOGY.
THOUGH the attention of man muft have, been
attrafted by the vegetables and animals with which he
found himfelf furrounded, and by the earth and mine¬
rals on which he trod, even at the very earlieft periods
of human fociety, yet a very confiderable time muft
have elapfed before any attempts vvere made at ar¬
rangement or claflification. Ariftotle was the firft (as
far as Ave knoA\') A\Tho deferved the name of natural
hiftorian } his arrangement of animals vvas the only one
followed for many centuries. He divided all animals
into viviparous and oviparous 5 the firft contained qua¬
drupeds, the fecond birds, filhes, and infefts. Under
infefts were comprehended all fmall annuals whofe bo¬
dies Avere divided into fegments. Ihis definition of in-
fefts AAas followed by all natural hiftorians doAvn to the
time of Linnams.
Theophraftus, the difciple of Ariftotle, the only other
perfon among the ancient Greeks who deferves the
name of natural hiftorian, beftoAved the moft of his at¬
tention on vegetables and minerals. Pliny has given us
an account of all that vvas known in natural hiftory
doAvn to his own times. Though he has mentioned many
infefts, owing to his aa ant of method little is to be learnt
from him refpefting entomology. Diofcorides, Ayho
was nearly cotemporary with Pliny, has confined him¬
felf chiefly to natural hiftory conne&ed with medicine.
He has given an enumeration of all the natural bodies'
Avhich entered into the materia medica. On the revi¬
val of learning in Europe, writers on natural hiftory
feemed to have confined themfelves to writing commen¬
taries on the ancients 5 and nothing Avas done in ento¬
mology till the times of Gefner, Avho.was the greateft
naturalift the Avorld had feen from the time of Ariftotle,.
and Avho was the firft who made a colledtion of the ob-
jefts of natural hiftory, and formed a mufeum. He was
born in Zurich in 1516, and died in 1565. Aldrovan-
dus lived nearly about the fame time with Gefner, and,
like him, formed a mufeum which ferved for the founda¬
tion of the public mufeum at Bologna, where many
fpecimens may be ftill feen marked Avith the venerable
hand of the firft colleaor. Gefner formed his zoology
on the principles of Ariftotle : his hiftory of animals is
very voluminous. Aldrovandus made a colleftion of
all that had been written on natural hiftory before his
owm time, Avithout diferiminating truth from fiftion.
He has given a methodical arrangement of infers
in the feventh book of his large Avork publilhed in 1602.
He followed nearly the fame arrangement with Gefner.
Gefner, in conjunftion with fome other natural hifto¬
rians, wrote a treatife on infers, which was publiihed by
Mouffet,