ENTOMOLOGICAL. 55 



these exquisite scales on the wing of a butterfly, all so 

 beautifully marked I had almost said sculptured that 

 the very highest powers of our instrument will be neces- 

 sary to detect them ? Dr. Eoyston-Pigott, F.K.S., says, 

 as an example of delicate measurement, the focal thick- 

 ness of one of these butterfly " feathers " was, by the aid 

 of a colleague, three times measured at the 1,250,000th 

 of an inch. 



Here is the choicest entomological specimen I have 

 seen in any one's cabinet, showing what human ingenuity 

 can accomplish, and illustrating the truth of the proverb 

 about time and patience. It is a bouquet of flowers, in an 

 exquisite vase, around which a group of gay butterflies 

 are apparently enjoying themselves. There are fuchsias, 

 roses, and, for a centre, a sunflower. And all this beau- 

 tiful, although artificial arrangement, consists of nothing 

 else whatever flowers and leaves, vase and flies all 

 arranged, remember, according to their natural colour 

 but the dust, or scales, or " feathers," whichever you like 

 to call them, taken from the wings of insects, the total 

 number of scales amounting to twelve hundred. 



You observed the mouth of the caterpillar of the 

 Vapourer, where the two openings of the spinning- 

 machine were, from which the fine silk was drawn out 

 which formed the raw material for its coffin, when it 

 passed into its intermediate state. Let me now show 

 you the secreting organs, which will open your eyes, I 

 hope, to the revelation of God in this humble creature, 

 and remind you of the words of an old writer,* who, had 

 he the optical advantages you and I possess, would have 

 used stronger language than he did: "It is not only," 

 he says, " in the creation of the heavens, of the earth, of 

 the sun, and the sea; of elephants and camels, horses' 



* Jerome, A.D. 380. 



