Oct., *08] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 387 



THE LITTLE MEN OF SCIENCE. Lord Rosebery's character sketch of 

 Lord Kelvin was fine and felt. ''What most struck me was his tenacity, 

 his laboriousncss, his indefatigable humility. In him was visible none 

 of the superciliousness and scorn which sometimes embarrass the strong- 

 est intellects. Without condescension he placed himself at once on a 

 level with his companion. That has seemed to me characteristic oi 

 such great men of science as I have met." W'e have often wondered 

 how it is that while the great men of science the Darwins, Kelvins 

 are like this, the smaller men, the men who have never originated any- 

 thing but have merely tried to suck in the ideas of the masters, so 

 often are impatient, spiteful, jealous, assertive, impressed as profoundly 

 by their own superiority as by the stupidity of nine-tenths of humanity. 

 That this is the attitude of the lesser fry of science, its sticklebacks and 

 tadpoles no one will deny. The little scientist is almost invariably 

 too clever by half. He hangs up pictures of Darwin in his study. His 

 talk is of Darwin. Yet he has as little of the heart as he has of the 

 brain of that great master. From the Saturday. 



DR. ALFREDO DUGES, of Guanajuato, Mexico, has sent a wasp to the 

 U. S. Bureau of Entomology, which has been determined by Mr. J. C. 

 Crawford as Polistcs carnifcx Fabr. It is a male specimen. Concern- 

 ing this insect Doctor Duges writes : 



"In a metal box you will find a yellow hymenopterous insect, the only 

 one which I have been able to obtain, for the people of the country 

 have such a fear of it that I can engage no one to collect it. It is 

 by chance that the individual which I send you has been found dead. 

 It comes from Barranca de Ahiiijillo, south of the State of Jalisco, on 

 the border of Michoacan. They call it Ahorcadora (strangler) or Em 

 borrachadora (that which intoxicates), because its sting occasions a 

 rush of blood to the head, violent fever, and a sensation of strangula- 

 tion. It is said that death arrives in a quarter of an hour if the wound 

 is not sucked. This insect is, then, a curious one from the point 

 of view of the fright which it causes. You know how prejudiced 

 country people are, so that no one can never tell the exact degree of 

 truth there is in such stories." 



FIGHT MOTHS WITH LIGHTS. Saxon Authorities Adopt Novel Plan 

 To Protect Forests From Pest. Zittau, Germany, August 8. The Sax- 

 on authorities have discovered what seems to be an excellent way to 

 put an end to the caterpillar plague which is ravaging local forests, 

 by a method of catching the brown nun moths that lay the eggs from 

 which caterpillars come in enormous quantities. 



They make use of an electric light lamp, consisting of two power- 

 ful reflectors placed over a deep receptacle, and powerful exhaust fans, 

 erected on top of the municipal electric plant. At night two great 



