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NA rURE 



\_Feb. 23, 1888 



evident that the War Office Committee has made a 

 serious mistake. The new regulations, so far as ex- 

 perimental science is concerned, are needless as pre- 

 cautions against cramming; they will not give due 

 weight to the subjects which are, by their own showing, 

 of most practical importance to officers ; and they will 

 influence most unfairly the selection of candidates by 

 giving no chance for scientific power to tell in the results 

 of the examinations. 



There is another side of this question which is of 

 very great public importance, viz. the influence of these 

 and other examinations on school work in general. 

 Regulations such as those now in force at Sandhurst, 

 and those about to come into operation at Woolwich, 

 make it increasingly difficult for science subjects to main- 

 tain their proper place in schools where they are already 

 adopted, and hinder their adoption elsewhere. Many of 

 the ablest youths in our public schools enter as com- 

 petitors in these and other examinations, and as they 

 must offer the subjects that pay best, such regulations as 

 those under discussion lower the general standard of 

 school work by constantly withdrawing from the 

 science classes a large proportion of the best stu- 

 dents. At present good work in science pays less well 

 very often than mediocrity in other subjects. This, 

 as was pointed out by Sir Lyon Playfair in his Pre- 

 sidential Address to the British Association in 1885, helps 

 to arrest progress in science teaching. We do not, of 

 course, claim that the interests of science in schools 

 should be allowed to outweigh the manifest needs of the 

 public services. But the fact that public examinations 

 exercise a potent influence, not only on the education of 

 the candidates, but also on the general tendency of school 

 work, throws great responsibility on those who con- 

 trol them, and makes it our duty to urge that this 

 influence shall not be lost sight of, especially when, as 

 in the case of Woolwich cadets, an aptitude for experi- 

 mental science is admittedly a quality that will be of 

 great practical value in the professional work of the 

 successful competitors. 



THE MO TBS OF INDIA. 



A Catalogue of the Moths of India. Compiled by E. C. 

 Cotes, First Assistant to the Superintendent, Indian 

 Museum, and Colonel C. Swinhoe, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. 

 Part I. Sphinges. Part II. Bombyces. (Calcutta: 

 Printed by the Superintendent of Government Print- 

 ing, 1887.) 



j T is not too much to say that the task of writing a 

 ^ catalogue of the moths of India is one which might 

 appal an entomologist of far longer experience than 

 either of the authors of this work. For when we consider 

 that no general catalogue or revision of the Heterocera 

 exists more recent than that of Gu^nde, that almost the 

 whole of the types of the described species are in Eng- 

 land, whilst both the authors of this book are in India, 

 and that the number of Indian moths is so great that in 

 the two first families alone upwards of 1600 species or 

 supposed species are catalogued, it is evident that the 

 difficulty of such a work is enormous ; and as the authors 

 are not known as lepidopterists of long standing, and 

 are resident on opposite sides of India, no one would 

 expect too much from the first attempt at what has long 



been very much wanted— namely, some work which would 

 enable the rapidly-growing circle of working naturalists 

 in India to know what has already been described and 

 where the descriptions have appeared. 



I think, therefore, that the cordial thanks of all will be 

 given to Colonel Swinhoe and Mr. Cotes for their bold 

 attempt to fill this blank, and that no one will be too 

 critical as to how their task has been done when the 

 great difficulties under which they labour are remembered. 

 There is not a word of introduction to say to what extent 

 either of the authors is responsible for the work, but I 

 believe that Mr. Cotes is really the compiler, and that 

 Colonel Swinhoe, whose collection is much richer than 

 that of the Indian Museum in the species which occur in 

 Western India, has added such additional species and 

 notes as he possesses. 



The plan of the work is nothing more than a bare 

 catalogue of names and references, with localities so far 

 as known to the compilers or to the authors of these 

 names ; and, as we see that in some genera almost all the 

 species are unknown to either of the authors except from 

 the descriptions or plates, it is evident that a large pro- 

 portion of the names are names and nothing more. 



In the genus Syntomis, for instance, we find forty-two 

 supposed species catalogued,of which fifteen are described 

 by Moore, nine by Walker, and ten by Butler ; of all 

 these only eleven are in Colonel Swinhoe's collection, and 

 thirteen in that of the Indian Museum, and we do not 

 find that a single attempt has been made to discover 

 how many of these forty-two names represent distinct 

 species. 



As long as authors continue to do as Messrs. Moore, 

 Butler, and the late Mr. Walker have so freely done — 

 namely, to describe anything they do not personally 

 know, with little regard to what has already been 

 described — it is evident that, when their views as to 

 variation are also extremely narrow, a great many 

 synonyms must result, and we think a little genuine 

 work would tend to show that of the forty-two supposed 

 species of Syntomis not more than perhaps twenty really 

 exist in nature. It is, however, quite as probable that 

 while not more than twenty distinct species are described 

 from India, at least twenty more remain undiscovered, 

 for it is hardly possible for anyone who does not know 

 India personally to understand how infinitesimal our 

 knowledge of the moths is, except in some half-dozen 

 localities like Bombay, Calcutta, and Sikkim ; and even 

 in such places as these what we know is but little com- 

 pared to what we do not know. Surely here is a field 

 for study and amusement which must attract many who 

 will, sooner or later, provide the materials and collect the 

 knowledge necessary for a " Catalogue raisonne^'' but 

 the sooner a good example is set, by the careful anc! 

 scientific description of the genera and species which are 

 known, with due regard to distribution and variation, 

 the more and better will be the work done. 



A book is projected by Mr. F. Moore, whose knowledge 

 of Indian moths is certainly greater than that of all other 

 entomologists combined ; but it is sincerely to be hoped 

 that he will not adopt such a plan or style of work as 

 his recently published " Lepidoptera of Ceylon." The 

 bulk and cost of such a work on the Lepidoptera of 

 India would quite prevent its use by those most likely 

 to use it to advantage, and even if it was completed in 



