that you select this, if you wish to be a man of detail, if 

 you wish to enter into the minutiae, do not neglect general 

 and large views." (Cheers.) Desultory pursuits alone 

 would never make a man a naturalist, but they were in- 

 valuable when combined with knowledge of detail. 

 (Hear.) Nothing in nature stood on a single prop. To 

 confine ourselves to detail would lead to narrow views, and 

 would therefore be unwise. The_right course was to study 

 a single branch of science as Captain Cox had done, and 

 then endeavour to connect it with the whole broad scope of 

 nature organic or inorganic. (Hear, hear.) Having said 

 thus much he would call upon Captain Cox to address the 

 meeting. (Cheers.) 



Captain C. J. Cox then delivered his promised lecture on 

 " The Metamorphoses of Insects as exemplified in the 

 changes of the Moth and Butterfly." go s ai d .— 

 ^ If I were to ask of the society now present in the room 

 / this simple question, " Can you at all inform me whence 

 , come those destroying blights we meet with every spring, 

 and which do so much damage to our gardens, to our 

 orchards, to our plantations, and hedge rows, to our cereal 

 grains, and esculent crops," I am afraid but very 

 erroneous answers would be given to my appeal. It would 

 be said they came from the air, or the wind brought them ; 

 or the hot, close, and cloudy atmosphere engendered them, 

 and if I ventured upon a doubt as to the facts given me, I 

 should be met with, " But my gardener (a man of observa- 

 tion) told me so, and therefore it must be true," or my neigh- 

 bour farmer Giles, who lives on his own farm, says they are 

 bred in the air, and farmer Giles goes to church and never 

 tells a story, so I must believe him. Now, it will be my 

 duty to endeavour to dispel these illusions, and I must 

 begin by stating that the air has no more to do with en- 

 gendering these insect pests than in bringing the barn door 

 chicken from the egg or our domestic animals from their 

 parents. The fact is, all life must spring from life— there 

 is no such thing as ipontaneous formation ; all these various 



