Book Description

Excerpt from The Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation, 1894, Vol. 5 We are anxious to keep British entomologists in touch with those of similar tastes in various parts of the world. We do not think this is best done by publishing articles on work done, or descriptions of species from distant parts of the world these must be studied by the specialist who will buy the books he needs. But among the large amount of material which passes through our hands (and for the purpose of en larging our knowledge of what is being done in different parts of the world, and thus giving ourselves a broader view of the subject, we exchange with all foreign magazines that will exchange with us), there are often articles or books which contain information with which the British collector should be acquainted. These we discuss as occasion demands from our own British standpoint, and we feel satisfied that in so doing, we interest all our readers. Glowing accounts of how to catch Purple Emperors and Jersey Tigers may interest us occasionally, but we cannot continually get up an excitement on such subjects. One other matter we would mention, and in this we ask for the aid of all right-thinking entomologists. Britishers have been described as peculiar in their tastes and insular in their habits, with regard to matters entomological, and not without good reason. We have no sympathy with the man who prefers to remain ignorant because he is afraid to have foreign insects in his possession for comparison with British, lest he should be thought a cheat. Those men who study entomology as a science are well-known; they are above suspicion. At the same time, our insular prejudices have placed a high (if artificial) money value on rare and local British species. Why should they not have this value if they are thought worth it? That this is the case is proved by the fact that the value is fixed in British sale-rooms. But this artificial money value has led often to wholesale fraud, and we shall continue to protect our science by exposing such fraud wherever we find it existent, not so much from a sympathy with the victims, who sometimes appear to be pleased when victimised and extremely cross when a dirty piece of work is exposed, but on account of the fact that the introduction of foreign specimens as British, falsifies the data on which our scientific work is based, and disseminates error where we want to disseminate truth. Ignorance and error are the two greatest enemies of Science. Science is the well of absolute truth - all her devotees must seek to drink from'it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.