I found it in the discard pile of a local university library. I find the book to be of exceptional historical interest in the insights it gives into the development of early modern entomological science. It also is of practical value as a source for terms that are obscure to modern users because they are no longer current. Such works are extremely difficult to rid of all errors, so treat any really suspicious looking passages with reserve.
I have avoided the use of non-alphabetic symbols as far as I could, for example Greek letters and male, female and hermaphroditic symbols, but if you encounter difficulties, those might be the source. Also, the colour table at the end is not really much good for anything beyond general impressions; not only are the paper and ink old, but between my scanner and your screen or printer, there is room for too much misinterpretation of precise colour, for anyone to take it seriously.
Venation According to the Comstock System. When, some time since, in consequence of continuing demands, the Brooklyn Entomological Society resolved to publish a new edition of its Explanation of Terms used in Entomology, and entrusted the writer and two associates with the task of preparing the same, it was believed that a little revision of definitions, the dropping of a few obsolete terms and the addition of a few lately proposed, would be all that was necessary.
It was to be a light task to fill idle time in summer, report to be made in fall. Two years have passed since that time; the associates have dropped by the way; the manuscript contains five times the number of terms in the original "Explanation. It is twenty-six years since the original list was published and nothing can better illustrate the advances made than a comparison between the old and the new Glossary.
No one realizes better than I the fact that as students have increased in each order, each has followed an independent line of research, absolutely without regard to the work done elsewhere. In consequence, we have several terms for the same thing in many cases and, in an equal number, several meanings to the same term. As no one man can now-a-days cover the entire field of Entomology, it goes without saying that I was compelled to rely partly upon books and partly upon the good nature of correspondents to make the work even approximately complete.
