ix 



they happened as fearful prognostics of impending evils, are stripped of their terrors, 

 and reduced to the class of events that happen in the common course of nature. 

 That insects are the cause of these showers is no recent discovery, for Sleidan relates 

 that in the year 1553 a vast multitude of Butterflies swarmed through a great part of 

 Germany, and sprinkled plants, leaves, buildings, clothes, and men, with bloody 

 drops, as if it had rained blood. But the most interesting account of an event 

 of this kind is given by Reaumur, from whom we learn that in the beginning of 

 July, 1 608, the suburbs of Aix, and a considerable extent of country round it, 

 were covered with what appeared to be a shower of blooJ. We may conceive the 

 amazement and stupor of the populace upon such a discovery, the alarm of the 

 citizens, the grave reasonings of the learned. All agreed, however, in attributing 

 this appearance to the powers of darkness, and in regarding it as the prognostic 

 and precursor of some direful misfortune about to befall them. Fear and prejudice 

 would have taken deep root upon this occasion, and might have produced fatal effects 

 upon some weak minds, had not Mr. Peiresc, a celebrated philosopher of that place, 

 paid attention to insects. A chrysalis which he preserved in his cabinet let him into 

 the secret of this mysterious shower. Hearing a fluttering, which informed him 

 his insect was arrived at its perfect state, he opened the box in which he kept it. 

 The animal flew out, and left behind it a red spot. He compared this with the 

 spots of the bloody shower, and found they were alike. At the same time he 

 observed there was a prodigious quantity of Butterflies flying about, and that 

 the drops of the miraculous rain were not to be found upon the tiles, nor even 

 upon the upper surface of the stones, but chiefly iu cavities and places whore 

 rain could not easily come. Thus did this judicious observer dispel the ignorant 

 fears and terror which a natural phenomenon had caused." 



To return to my more immediate subject. Having now obtained your Butter- 

 fly* you. must proceed to kill it for preservation, unless indeed you find it is 

 one you already possess, and then, by all manner of means, allow it to escape. 

 It will indeed be a pleasure to see your captive essay the powers of his newly- 

 acquired wings, and launch himself for the first time on " the realms of air." 

 But suppose you wish to preserve it, then, alas 1 it must die. Butterflies require 

 to be pinned : the pin is passed through the very centre of the thorax, or 

 that part to which the wings are attached, the finger and thumb of the left 

 hand at the same time pinching the insect under the wings. A slight pinch 

 numbs a Butterfly ; and immediately it is pinned it must be put in the collecting 

 box, in which a little bag of camphor or of chopped laurel leaves must always 

 be kept. The object of this is to prevent the return of life, for, curious as it 

 may seem, a Butterfly, after appearing to be dead; will frequently be seen to 

 move, and this for hours. Now, it is not only cruel to keep any living thing 

 iu such a semi-animate condition, but it is very unwise, for it will be sure to 



