Excerpt from The Rhopalocera of Java: Pieridae

But the great expense of such a publication has kept me back till now. Even if I confine myself to those figures which cannot be omitted, because they are still quite unknown or for other reasons, I shall have to give a great many plates in quarto which, though the figures have been made already, will amount to a pretty large sum of money and there are still the printing-and publishing costs of the text, and the inevitable translation fees. And who can guarantee that the produce of such a work will even slightly lessen the expenses?

Therefore I have resolved to try it by publishing the said fauna of the Rhopalocera in separate monographies according to families instead of the whole work at once. To the first monography, which will serve at the same time as a proof, I intend to add, according to the amount of financial support given in this way to the publication, a subscription list for the next, in order to be able to judge of the possibility of continuing it. As the first family to be treated of in this way, I have chosen that of the Pierida This one seemed most suitable to my purpose. Firstly, because it is not very numerous in species living in Java, while at the same time there already exist good figures of many of them, so that a relatively small number of plates will suffice. Secondly because the said family especially offers the occasion to speak about some lepidopterological views which I profess, contradictory to the prevailing opinions in this respect, and thus enables me to explain these views in examples, from the beginning. For this reason my work has a peculiar character, especially with respect to the evolutionary nature of the morphogeny of the Lepidoptera. Therefore, to my mind, in that regard it is also scientifically further advanced than previous works which treat of the lepidopterological fauna of any other region. In order to be able to judge correctly of my work, it is, however, necessary to understand my said scientific views clearly from the beginning.

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