92 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



but lament, seeing it in so many otherwise well-educated 

 men and women, in the editors of some of our distinguished 

 journals, and in most of the travelers who are constant- 

 ly publishing accounts of their journeys in foreign lands. 

 How much more rich, amusing, interesting, and instructive 

 would these reports be if their writers could adorn their 

 topographical descriptions and special histories of foreign 

 lands with information concerning some curious beasts, 

 birds, reptiles, fish, insects, or plants, which they have ac- 

 cidentally met in their journeys. 



Now the deplorable ignorance that so universally pre- 

 vails with regard to Natural History arises not from any 

 deficiency of genius in the American people, but it arises 

 from the fact that our Schools, Colleges, and so-called 

 Universities, which are the leaders and guides of general 

 education, almost entirely neglect this department of Sci- 

 ence. Hardly any of our Institutions of Learning, except 

 Cambridge, have regular Professors of this branch, and ex- 

 cept Princeton, in New Jersey, very few, if any, have Cab- 

 inets of Natural History, and none 'have a sufficient num- 

 ber of books treating upon this subject to form a library. 



I have no intention or disposition to ridicule what is 

 really a proper object of lamentation ; but to one accus- 

 tomed to the magnificent and extensive Cabinets of Natural 

 History, which are always considered an indispensable part 

 of the Universities of Europe, the Cabinets or Museums of 

 our Colleges, containing a few pebbles, the skin of a rattle- 

 snake, the broken shoulder-bone of a mastadon, and such 

 like articles, can hardly fail of exciting a smile, even though 

 it be accompanied with a tear of pity. 



Some few years ago the President of one of our Western 

 Colleges showed me their Museum, which contained many 

 such wonderful articles as I have mentioned, and besides 

 these precious specimens, a pair of black satin breeches, 

 suspended by the waist and with the legs extended, like 



