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

ffftory. Mouffet, an Engli^i phyfician. About this time our
<—countryman, the illuftrious Harvey, ventured to con¬
trovert Ariftotle’s erroneous opinion with refpeft to
equivocal generation. Though his aphorifm, omnia ex
ovo, at firft met with great oppofition, it was at laft ef-
tablilhed by his own experiments and thofe of Rhedi and
Malpighi. From this period the writers on entomo¬
logy have been numerous; we fhall content ourfelves
here with giving little more than an enumeration of the
principal works on the fubjeft.
Agricola, in a work entitled de Animantibus Sub-
terraneis, publiflied in 1549, has given a methodical ar¬
rangement of infefts: he divides them into, 1. Creep¬
ing infedls; 2. Flying infe&s; and 3. Swimming in-
feds. After giving this arrangement, he proceeds to
give an account of each fpecies.
A work entitled Theatrum InfeBorum Thomce Mouf-
feti opera concinnatum, Lond. 1634, the joint labour
of feveral of the mod eminent natural hiitorians who
lived about the middle of the fixteenth century, though
not publifhed till 1734, about 30 years after the death
of Mouffet, by whofe care the work had been abridged,
and prepared to meet the public eye, is the next worthy
of notice. It is divided into two books j the firft treats
of winged infe&s j the fecond of infefts without wings :
thefe two grand divifions are fubdivided into feveral
families chara&erized by the number and polition of the
legs. There is but little method difplayed in the
arrangement of the infe&s which compofe the different
• families.
Aldrovandus divides infefts into terrejlria et aquatica
(la'nd infects, and aquatic infe£ts). The different orders
and fubdiviffons of thefe two elafles, are for the moft
ipart determined by the number, nature, and pofition of
their wings and legs. He calls his firft order Favifica,
(thofe which form combs). As to the reft, according
to his own declaration, he follows Ariftotle.
Wolfang Frenzius, in his Htjlona Ammalium facra,
publiftied in 1612, has divided infefts into three claffes,
viz. 1. Aeriay (fuch as fly); 2. Aquatica, (fuch as in¬
habit the water) ; 3. Terrea et Replentia, (fuch as
creep about, or are lodged in the earth). His defcrip-
tions are much more accurate than thofe of any of the
authors who preceded him.
John Johnfton has borrowed freely from his predecef-
fors, in his H'/loria Naturalis InfeBorum, publifhed in
1653. He divides infefts into terrejlria and aquatica,
(into land and aquatic infefts) : the land infefts he di¬
vides into three orders ; 1. Such as have wings and
legs; 2. Such as have legs without wftngs ; and 3. Such
as have neither wings nor legs. Thefe three orders oc¬
cupy his three firft books ; his fourth contains aquatic
in lefts.
Walter Charleton follow's thefyftemof Aldrovandus
in his Onomajicon Zoicon, publilhed in 1668.
Jo. Goodart publiihed Metamorphojs et Hijoria Na-
turnhs de InfeBis, 8vo. Mediob. 1667.
Likewife in 1675, a work of his appeared, de InfeBis
in Methodum reduBis, opera Mart. Lifer. Ebor. In
this w'ork infefts are divided into ten families : the
1 ft includes butterflies with ereft wings; 2d, Butterflies
with horizontal wings ; 3d, Butterflies with deflefted
wings; 4th, Libellula;, (dragon-flies) ; 5th, Apes,
(bees) ; 6th, Coleopterous infefts ; 7th, Locufts, and
■gralhoppers; 8th, Flies correfponding to the order
ENTOMOLOGY. 237
diptera of Linnaeus ; 9th, Millepedr; and xoth, Spi- Hiftory.
ders. This work is full of typographical errors and
miftakes in natural hiftory.
The difeovery of the microfcope in 1618, tended
greatly to the advancement of entomology, as by means
of it the moft minute parts of infefts could be viewed,
and their organization examined. Naturalifts were
much engaged in making microfcopic difeoveries, parti¬
cularly Borel, Rhedi, Swammerdam, Bonanni,Bonomo,
Leeuwenhoeck and Joblot.
John Swammerdam, in his Biblia Naturce, publiftied
in 1669, has divided iufefts into four clafles.
John Ray publiftied his Hijoria InfeBorum. Lond.
1710. This work was properly the joint produftion of
J. Ray and Francis Willoughby. Thefe illuftrious
friends laboured together with uncommon ardour in
the ftudy of nature. Death carried off Willoughby in
the prime of life, before he had properly digefted what
the induftry of his early years had collefted; and his
labours would have been loft to the world, and his
name might have funk in oblivion, but for the friend-
fhip of Ray. So clofe was the intercourfe between thefe
two naturalifts, and fo intimately were their labours
blended together, that it is not eafy to aflign each his
due lhare of merit. Indeed Ray has been lb partial to
the fame of his departed friend, and has cheriftied his
memory with fuch afteftionate care, that we are in
danger of attributing too much to Mr Willoughby,
and too little to himfelf. Though what Dr Derham
afferts be not correft, that Mr Willoughby had taken
the animal kingdom for his talk, and Mr Ray the ve¬
getable one, yet it is generally agreed, that the Hijoria
InfeBorum is principally to be ai’eribed to Willoughby.
In that w;ork infefts are divided into Tranfmutabi/ia et
Intranfmutabiha, (thofe which undergo a metamorpho-
fis, and thofe which undergo none). Thefe two grand
divifions are fubdivided into feveral orders, which are af-
certained by the number of their legs, or total want of
legs ; by the places which they inhabit; by their fize;
by the configuration of the various parts of the body ;
by the fmell which they diffufe, &c. The tranfmutabi-
lia are divided into four orders. 1. Vaginipennes, (thofe
which have their wings covered with a ftieath). 2. Pa-
piliones, (lepidopterous infefts). 3. ^uadripennes, (thofe
which have four wings) ; and 4. Bipennes, (thofe which
have two). The papiliones, quadripennes, and bipennes
are again fubdivided into families, the charafters of
which are taken, either from the appearance and con¬
formation of their larvae, or from the form, colour and
different properties of the perfeft infeft.
Eleazar Albin publiftied a natural hiftory of Englilh
infefts in 1720. He likewife publilhed the Natural
Hiftory of Spiders in 1736.
Antony Valifnieri, in his work entitled Efpenen%e
■e Oferva%ioni in tor no agli Infetti, publiflied in 173 c, .
has divided infefts into four orders, according to the
fituation in w-hich they pafs their lives.
Mary Sybelle Merian, publiflied in 1730, Hijoire
d'lnfeBes d'Europe et de Surinam. She likewife publilh¬
ed in 1705, Metamorphojs InfeBorum Surinamcnjum
ad vivum piBa et dejenpta; and in 1717, Erucarum
Ortus.
George Bernard Rhump publiflied in 1705, and
again in 1741, a work entitled AmboinifcheRavitutkam-
mer, .
Hairs