64 THE entomologist's record, 



condition of mental happiness, of which nothing can rob us and to 

 which only an individual of the highest mental ty2:)e can attain ; then 

 one may add the health-giving exercise necessitated by field work, the 

 mental and bodily exercise combined tending to produce the coveted 

 "■ metis Sana in cor pore sanoy Indeed, the charms of entomology are 

 such, that one wonders not so much how it is that many with a love of 

 investigation, or curiosity as to how the present natural conditions have 

 been bi'ouglit about, have taken up seriously and enthusiastically its 

 study, but rather, considering all things, how few there are who have 

 done so. Once the true course has been opened out before our eyes, 

 and the true philosophical spirit tasted and appreciated, the charm and 

 interest are unequalled. 



Probably, the fact that average men and women look upon us as a 

 body of somewhat harmless lunatics, has had something to do with the 

 slow progress that entomology, in company with other brandies of 

 science, has until recently niade. That any sane man or woman should 

 be interested and, as the uninitiated would say, should " waste his or 

 her time " over bugs and insects, appears unaccountably strange to 

 many. The fact that when much-read writers endeavour to portray an 

 entomologist, they generally idealise him as being widely different 

 from other men, totally immersed in his subject, and stupid to the 

 highest degree in all matters else, has probably had much to do with 

 the popular fallacy. On the other hand, the stupid ignorance which 

 so-called educated men dis^jlay ; the absurd blunders and errors into 

 whicli they fall ; the ridiculous errors which high-class papers and 

 magazines allow to pass unchallenged in their pages ; all these lead 

 scientific men to wonder oft-times whether such people are not really 

 deficient of a certain section of their brains. These frecpient errors, 

 too, appear to be so utterly beneath contempt, that tlie well-informed 

 man allows them to pass unnoticed, knowing that to correct tliem ho 

 must explain to adults as he would to little children. The task appears 

 so Herculean that he desists from the attempt. 



Whatever depths of general ignorance still exist in the popular mind 

 on matters entomological, it must be owned, however, that the interest 

 recently exhibited in the more philosophical side of the study, together 

 with the general spread of education and intelligent culture, have left 

 their mark, and we are glad to find that many individuals do now-a- 

 days express their surprise at the prevailing ignorance about natural 

 history matters. Some such have suggested that, in its simple forms, 

 natural history should be made a compulsory subject of instruction in 

 the State schools. I suppose there is no Oxford or Cambridge graduate, 

 a master in one of our Public schools, who corrects a boy for telling him 

 that a Avhale is not a fish ; nor perhajis is there a certificated teacher in 

 our State schools, who would ])e guilty of the same or a similar 

 error. With regard to that still great army of " private adventure " 

 schools, however, on which Max O'Rell so glowingly descants, those 

 " seminaries for the sons and daughters of gentlemen," which compare 

 so unfavourably in their results with their compeers, can as much be 

 said ? As a teacher, however, it is my most decided opinion that the 

 making of such a subject as natural history compulsory in our State 

 schools would be ridiculous in the extreme. Our system of primar}' 

 education, compared with what intelligence and a little insight might 

 make it, is now (owing to the superfluity of subjects which have been 



