James Duncan

“ Deprived by the first of our revolutions of the support of a noble and powerful family, whose protection he had acquired, and on which he had some claims by birth, Latreille was thrown alone into the world, in the midst of political tempests, without property or means of any kind, with a well finished education, an ardent passion for study, a quick and sensitive heart, and a delicate frame of body. ”

“ With opinions having such a decided tendency to materialism, it is not surprising that Lamarck seldom makes allusion to a Deity, and when he does so, he nearly confines himself to the bare acknowledgment of his existence. In his earlier works, there is no mention made of a Supreme Being whatever; and even when his existence is admitted, He is divested of the attributes which belong to him. The glory of forming the works of creation, in which His beneficence and power are so signally manifested, is ascribed to nature, or a certain order of things. ”

“ A loud confused noise is heard throughout the hive, and hardly any of the workers are observed going abroad to forage; numbers are whirling about in an unsettled manner in front of the hive; and the moment is come, to a considerable portion of the family, for bidding adieu to their ancient abode. All at once the noise in the interior ceases, and the whole of the bees about the doors re-enter; while those returning loaded from the fields, instead of hurrying in as usual, hover on the wing, as if in eager expectation. ”

“ When we perceive the admirable manner in which he discerned and characterized natural groups, his skill in seizing on the most distinctive marks of species, the indefatigable industry with which he investigated their history and synonymy, together with the excellence of his system of arrangement,—we are led to regret that he was so late in entering upon this field of labour, as to be obliged to confine his attention to one division of the animal kingdom, and that he so frequently deviated even from that, in order to indulge his favourite practice of theorizing. ”

“ It sallies out only by night, and brings to its dwelling whole leaves of the broad foliage of this tree with dexterity and great labour, exhibiting many marks of sagacity in its progress, and when it arrives at the entrance to its retreat, it raises up the covering with its hinder parts and slips into its cell backwards, dragging the leaf after it, the extreme end of the stalk being held artfully in its jaws. It does not quit its hold till the leaf be almost entirely within its cell, where it fastens it down, together with the covering of the entrance, by a web. ”

“ We have now entered, as far as our limited space will admit, into the history of the external and internal organisation of insects, a department of natural history fraught with interesting subjects of research, and exhibiting, in so conspicuous a manner that it can scarcely fail to strike the most insensible, the goodness and power of that adorable Intelligence which has provided for the wellbeing of the lowliest of his creatures, by a mechanism and a vital system even more complicated than among the higher animals, and equally deserving of our admiration. ”

“ The wily insects soon discover the weakness of any particular hive in point of population, and, acting on this discovery, attack it in such numbers, that nothing but its removal can save it from speedy and utter destruction.
Bad as wasps are, the Bees themselves are the worst enemies to their own species. In a backward spring, or toward the end of autumn, when the population begins to be scanty, some bees may be observed lounging about the apiary, as if conscious that there was no present scope for the exercise of honest industry, and, like other idlers, seem ripe for any mischief. ”

“ They may then be seen in numbers crawling on the ground, where they perish from the cold, or are trampled under foot, and devoured by birds or frogs. Such as escape for a while, may be seen flying from destruction, lighting on the shrubs and flowers to enjoy a moment's respite from their terrors; or buzzing about our windows, or wandering about from hive to hive, into one of which they no sooner enter, than certain death awaits them. ”

“ Nervous System.—The important and singular department of the animal economy now to be briefly considered, is rather of a simple nature in insects, that is, in its external and material properties, for the manner in which it obeys the commands of the governing principle is just as subtle and mysterious in this as in any other branch of the animal kingdom. As the seat of sensation, it is the originating and animating cause of all activity and motion in the various organs. ”

“ The intellectual faculties of animals, Lamarck regards as entirely the result of organization. Even in the case of the most perfect of them, the human species, there is no distinct recognition of a spiritual substance derived from heaven; and all intellectual phenomena whatever, are ascribed to some physical cause. Nature, he conceives, offers nothing cognizable by us but body; the movements, changes, and properties of bodies, form the only field open to our observation, and the only source of real knowledge and useful truths11. ”

“ It would then become my part to point out by what labours the indefatigable Latreille submitted all the observations of these great men to a new test,—a more exact and complete analysis; how prodigiously he added to the number of their observations; and how at last he succeeded in uniting into a body of doctrine such an immense number of facts, as to form at once a guide to the philosophical naturalist in this difficult department of science, and facilitate the study of all the authors who have treated of it. ”

“ And the excrescence produced in the human ear, which also goes by the name of wax, is certainly a substance as different from that of the body which produces it as either the one or the other. Upon the whole, until I meet with a more probable theory, supported by facts, I must give it as my humble opinion that the wax is produced from the body of the bee alone, or rather, that the bees can speedily convert into wax what they bring from the flowers, and therewith build their combs and seal up both their young and their honey. ”

“ The more simple bodies, such as a monad or a polypus, are easily formed; and this being the case, it is easy to conceive how, in the lapse of time, animals of more complex structure should be produced, for it must be admitted as a fundamental law, that the production of a new organ in an animal body results from any new want or desire which it may experience. The first effort of a being just beginning to develope itself, must be to procure the means of subsistence, and hence in time there came to be produced a stomach or alimentary cavity. ”

“ Viewing the animal kingdom as forming a progressive series, from the most simple to the most complex organism, insects may be regarded as occupying nearly the centre of the scale; for, though some properties might entitle them to rank higher, there are others in which they are so deficient, as completely to counterbalance that consideration. In muscular vigour, for example, and the complication of the digestive canal, they are almost equal to the vertebrata, while the circulating system is so imperfect, that it was, till lately, a matter of doubt whether it deserved the name. ”

“ I should have been obliged to point out how all the parts of natural history are incomplete without that of insects, not only because it is in itself the most considerable by the number of the individuals which it embraces, but also because it is connected with all the rest. ”

“ When occupied with the productions of a single country, the classification is much more easy; the greater number of species associate pretty well with each other, and, if we except a few of the most anomalous, a series is obtained free from much irregularity. In this way, the European species form a pretty homogeneous assemblage, and the same thing holds with regard to those of South America, New Holland, or any other country taken by itself; but when we attempt to classify those of the whole globe, we frequently meet with intermediate genera which interrupt this harmony. ”