FABRICIUS, John-Christian, the most celebrated entomologist of the eighteenth century, was born at Tundern, in the duchy of Sleswick, in 1742. After having completed his studies, at the age of twenty, he repaired to the university of Upsal, to attend the prelections of Linnæus. How long he remained there is uncertain. But no pupil was ever more indebted to the lessons of his master than Fabricius. All his works on entomology, which have secured to him a well-merited reputation, indicate the precepts, the method, and even the forms of Linnæus, applied to the development of a single new idea, not more fortunate in conception than fruitful in its consequences. Far from disguising the obligations which he owed to his master, Fabricius delighted to expatiate on the happy moments which he had passed in the society of Linnæus; and the grateful scholar has transmitted to us those biographical details, which are not only the most interesting in themselves, but at the same time best fitted to give us an insight into the character of the great naturalist. It was in studying under the latter that Fabricius conceived the idea of his system, and formed the project of his labours on insects. The first insect's mouth which he dissected was that of a cockchafer (scarabæus stridulus); he showed it to Linnæus, with the description he had made of it, and proposed to him to employ the organs of the mouth, in order to establish the characters of insects, in the new edition of the Systema Naturæ which Linnæus was then preparing. The latter encouraged his pupil to pursue this course, but refused to enter on it himself, because, as he said, he was too old to change his method. Forced to choose a profession, Fabricius studied medicine, and at the age of twenty-five took the degree of doctor in physics; but being soon afterwards appointed professor of natural history in the university of Kiel, he devoted himself entirely to his favourite pursuits, and, in 1775, published his system of entomology. This work gave a new aspect to the science. Swammerdam and Ray had classed insects according to their metamorphoses; Lister, Linnæus, and Geoffroy, according to the organs of motion; and some entomologists, as Reaumur, Scopoli, and even Linnæus himself, had employed the nutritive organs in order to characterize distinctively certain genera. But before the time of Fabricius no one had thought of making these
Fabricius the basis of a general classification. This idea was at once new and bold, and the author evolved it with singular ability. In a second work, which he published two years afterwards, he developed the characters of the classes and genera, showing in the preface the advantages of his method, and, at the same time, excusing its inconveniences. Lastly, in 1778, he published Entomological Philosophy, in imitation of the Botanical Philosophy of Linnæus; and from this period till his death, that is, during the space of more than thirty years, he was incessantly occupied in extending his system, which he reproduced under different forms in the various works which, from time to time, he gave to the world. But in proportion as the number of species increased, the characters of the genera, and even of the classes, became more and more uncertain and arbitrary; and, with reference to this fundamental point, his later writings are perhaps inferior to those which preceded them. The basis which he had assumed was excellent; but it could only conduct him to a natural method, not, as he supposed, to a system; and this misconception led him to neglect other considerations which would have furnished more exact means of classification. Fabricius had a very extensive knowledge of botany, and of the other branches of natural history. He had been appointed counsellor of state to the king of Denmark, and professor of rural and political economy, in which capacity he published, in German and in Danish, several useful works, though much less celebrated than those which appeared from his pen on the subject of entomology. Fabricius died in 1807, at the age of sixty-five, of a melancholic affection, produced, as is alleged, by the bombardment of Copenhagen. The following is a list of his works: 1. Systema Entomologie, Flensburg, 1775, in 8vo; 2. Genera Insectorum, Kiel, 1776, in 8vo; 3. Philosophia Entomologica, Hamburg, 1778, in 8vo; 4. Species Insectorum, ibid. 1778, in two vols. 8vo; 5. Mantissa Insectorum, Copenhagen, 1787, in 2 vols. 8vo; 6. Nova Insectorum Genera, in Mem. of the Soc. of Nat. Hist. Copenhagen; 7. Entomologia Systematica, Copenhagen, 1792-1796, in 7 vols. 8vo; 8. Supplementum Entomologiae Systematica, ibid. 1798, in 8vo; 9. Systema Eleutheratorum, Kiel, 1801, in 2 vols. 8vo, with an index; 10. Systema Rhynchotorum, Brunswick, 1803, in 8vo; 11. Systema Piezatorum, ibid. 1804, in 8vo; 12. Systema Antliatorum, ibid. 1805, in 8vo; 13. Description of the Tipula Sericea in the Berlin Mem. tome v.; 14. De Systematibus Entomologicis, in the same collection; 15. Considérations sur l'ordre général de la Nature, Hamburg, 1781, in 8vo; 16. Traité de la Culture des Plantes à l'usage des cultivateurs; 17. Observations sur l'engourdissement des Animaux durant l'hiver, inserted in the Mag. de Physique, tom. ix. p. 79; 18. Résultat des Leçons sur l'Histoire Naturelle, Kiel, 1804, in 8vo; 19. Sur l'accroissement de la Population, particulièrement en Danemark; 20. Éléments d'Économie Politique à l'usage des étudiants, Flensburg, 1775, in 8vo; 21. Ren-seignements Historiques sur le Commerce du Danemark; 22. Heori bestaer Borgendyd besareet; In what consists civic virtue? Copenhagen, 1786, in 8vo; 23. Sur les Finances et la Dette en Danemark; 24. Recueil d'Écrits sur l'Administration, Kiel, 1786 and 1790, in 2 vols. 8vo; 25. Sur les Académies, particulièrement en Danemark, Copenhagen, 1796, in 8vo; 26. Voyage en Norwège, Hamburg, 1799, in 8vo; 27. Lettres sur Londres, Leipzig, 1784, in 8vo; 28. Lettres au sujet d'un voyage fait en Russie; 29. Remarques Minéralogiques et Technologiques; 30. Remarques sur le Danemark, written in English, and published by Pinkerton in his Modern Geography, 1807.