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thus equipped, he has travelled by night through 

 many districts of the Brazils, and threaded the woods 

 of South America. Thus had the aborigines of South 

 America, in all times past, provided for them, by Divine 

 Beneficence, a living lamp, which, supplied from itself, 

 required neither oil nor gas to feed it, and ever bright, 

 needed no hand of art to trim it : it was kindled at 

 first by that BEING who said "Let there be light,'* 

 and it was so. And our friend informs us, that when 

 the hedges, chiefly formed of some species of the genus 

 rosa, are illuminated by these gems of living light, it 

 is a truly brilliant scene. He tells us also, that the 

 light intermits, as in the glow-worm, as if it were 

 occasioned by the respiratory organs or the movement 

 of the abdomen ; hence there can be little doubt that 

 it is connected with the circulation of the blood. 



Madame Merian describes her surprise on first 

 seeing this light. Some of these it appears had been 

 imprisoned in a box, but the noise they made awoke 

 her ; and on opening the lid to see what was the matter, 

 one flash of fire after another issued from the box. 

 Lucifer, or porte-lanterne^ is the name given to this 

 insect by Mad. Merian, and is figured (pi. 49.) in 

 her " Insects of Surinam."* The head is a translucent 

 mass, and the light shed by it so great, that according 

 to Mad. Merian it would not be difficult to read a 

 newspaper by it. " Un livre d'un caractefe pareil 

 a celui de la Gazette d'Hollande," these are her 

 words. She does not pretend to draw the insect by 

 its own light, as Dr. Darwin has made her do. 



Roesel gives us a beautiful representation of the 

 insect. The truth of these exquisite colours and shad- 

 ings has been questioned by De Geer ; but we are of 

 opinion, that, so far from exceeding the truth, they fall 



