74 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



during the night that she rose from her bed and opened 

 the box, which however she immediately dropped on the 

 ground, so frightened was she at the multitude of fiery 

 flames issuing from it. 



Now modern naturalists, such as Prince Max of Neu- 

 wied. Prince Paul of Wiirtemberg, Count HofFmansegg, 

 Mr. Lacordaire, and several others who have traveled in 

 those countries, and have collected a number of them alive, 

 state that none of the specimens they have ever seen alive 

 exhibited the least appearance or trace of luminosity. And 

 indeed of what use could such a lantern be, placed directly 

 before the eyes of the insect ? If we were obliged to carry 

 a torch-light upon our foreheads directly in front of our 

 eyes, we should be so dazzled that we could see nothing. 

 This insect is three inches long, its head being of itself only 

 a few lines in length, but, with the lantern, as long as its 

 abdomen. It still retains its name of Lantern-fly, but its 

 supposed light has long since been considered by naturalists 

 as an ignorant superstition, or, at best, as a fact unsubstan- 

 tiated by any of the species existing at the present day. 



With regard to the marvelous interpolations in Natural 

 Science, I can not forbear quoting from the work of the 

 late Thomas Say the following examples : " AVe are told 

 that there was a time when a piece of wood was transform- 

 ed into a serpent ; and even in the present age of knowl- 

 edge, a hair fallen from the mane or tail of a horse into a 

 stream of water is believed by many to become animated 

 into a distinct being; dead leaves shed by the parent tree 

 are said to change gradually into animals of singular shape, 

 and to have changed their place of abode under the eye of 

 the historian who related the wonderful tale; dead sticks 

 were also said to sprout legs, to move from place to place, 

 and perform all the functions of a living body. These, and 

 a thousand other equally ridiculous stories, were, at one pe- 

 riod or another, more or less generally admitted as indis- 



