The entomologist's text-book; an introduction to the natural history, structure, physiology and classification of insects, including the Crustacea and Arachnida / By J.O. Westwood.

  • John Obadiah Westwood
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The entomologist's text-book; an introduction to the natural history, structure, physiology and classification of insects, including the Crustacea and Arachnida / By J.O. Westwood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    31/464 (page 11)
    “ATOMS ORGANIZED.” 1] size and gigantic expanse? The wisdom of the Creator is concentrated in these minims of creation, in order the better to develope His power ; since in these creatures, whose ex- cessive minuteness renders it difficult, and even impossible, to observe some of them with the unassisted eye, how can we conceive it possible to arrange all the machinery which exists in the bodies of these “ atoms organized,” as perfect and as complex as in those of the largest? The little beetle (Atomaria atomos), and the minute parasitic fly (Mymar monas), although not one-hundredth part of an inch in length, possess precisely the same number of organs, and even of joints of those organs, as their larger brethren of the tribes to which they respectively belong. To neglect this portion of the creation is to say, that these living machines, in which the rules of the most perfect mechanical knowledge have been implicitly followed, and of which the various parts are arranged with the utmost art, but which are nevertheless so fine and delicate as to escape our view, are less worthy of regard than the larger machines made precisely upon the same model. Absurd reasoning! Who does not regard the skill of the artificer capable of forming a minute pocket-watch, with its delicate machinery, as more worthy of notice than that of the workman who can but construct a town-clock. The benefits and injuries resulting to mankind from these creatures (insignificant though they may be regarded) are, moreover, amply sufficient to prove that they are, on the contrary, well deserving of his attention, either with a view of extending the former or diminishing the latter. Of their obnoxious powers all are more or less directly or indirectly cognizant, their minute size insuring them success in their assaults, and scarcely permitting the possibility of extirpa- tion. On the other hand, the benefits we experience from sects are scarcely less extensive, serving as an ample counterbalance against their attacks upon our properties or