THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 247 
subject—A. B. Farn; 8, Richmond Terrace, Whitehall, 
January 18, 1871. 
[The beetle is very. familiarly known as the “ bean weevil” 
(Bruchus rufimanus). The same complaint, and numerous 
enquiries, have reached me through the ‘ Field’ newspaper ; 
and, with a view of disposing of them all at once, I published 
a life-history of the insect in the ‘ Field’ for November 26th, 
giving figures of the beetle and of the bean. Nevertheless, I 
am obliged to confess my inability to recommend a remedy, 
and hesitate to say anything about “ washing or dressing,” as 
I know of no experiments in either direction that have proved 
successful: still I can conscientiously, and most emphatically, 
caution my readers against the purchase and use of advertised 
nostrums,— as powders, insect-destroyers, and so forth, — 
because this is not only a waste of money, but it diverts the 
attention of the sufferer from those careful investigations 
which might possibly lead to some beneficial result, just as 
the republication of the description of a caterpillar, from 
some authentic source, leads to a reluctance to take the 
trouble of writing an original description. I have often been 
reproached with having written original descriptions, when 
good descriptions had been previously published by Samouelle, 
Haworth, Stephens, Jermyn, &c., &c. I think otherwise: I 
think that this system of copying, instead of observing, 
simply perpetuates error, and thrusts poor Truth still farther 
into the well, where she is said to have taken up her 
residence. That the injury committed by this Bruchus is 
increasing year after year, as stated by some of the alarmists, 
I totally disbelieve. One hundred and twenty years ago, 
namely in 1750, a statement was published that “a thousand 
quarters of large beans were so infested, that the meal, after 
passing through the mill-stones, was apparently alive with 
beetles, which took wing and flew about the mill by 
thousands; and there were from three to five insects in 
many of the beans.” It is, perhaps, difficult to see how the 
beetles escaped the somewhat uncongenial and unpleasant 
interference with their anatomy, which mill-stones might 
possibly occasion; but that is nothing to the purpose. I 
think that, taking the statement exactly as it stands, it shows 
Jist, that Bruchi were as numerous 120 years ago as 
they are now; and secondly, that the average number, per 
