204 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



■wliicli lias only of late years been recognised as British, 

 climbing up a pillar just outside the front door of a house. 

 Many may also le found in thatch : if an old thatched 

 rofif. V.].'. ii li - 1 I. me black with age, be beaten with a 

 stcju: : (lust and rubbish that come out be 



cau-li i: :i I afterwards carefully examined by 



shaking- ii ^•\, i :, piece of white paper, the beetles it 

 contains will t:isily be seen; they are mostly exceedingly 

 small, but some are very interesting forms. In birds' nests 

 built in the gutters or under the eaves, and in pigeon- 

 cotes and fowl-houses, many species also habitually live. 

 If a quantity of the filthy refuse that accumulates on the 

 floor of a fowl-house be shaken over paper, hundreds of 

 beetles will come tumbling out, some of them even sufln- 

 ciently valuable to make amends for the unpleasantness 

 of the method of obtaining them. 



In country-houses, if an old log be put on the fire, any 

 insects it may contain, speedily finding their quarters 

 becoming too hot for them, make their escape, and as 

 often as not find their way to the window, where, of 

 course, they are readily observed and may be easily 

 captured. 



Here we may conclude the consideration of the first 

 order of insects, the Coleoptera ; in the next paper we 

 shall proceed to notice the second order, the Hymenoptera. 



(To le continued.) 



6 0£j£ilp. 



Br Richard A. Pkoctor. 



After the last number in September Knowledge will 

 be published as a monthly magazine, price sixpence. 



Like other monthly magazines. Knowledge in future 

 will not be open to correspondence properly so called. 

 Communications addressed to us by readers, in regard to 

 subjects of interest with which they are conversant, will 

 of course be welcome as they have always been. But 

 argumentative letters would manifestly be out of place 

 in a monthly magazine ; indeed I imagine that argu- 

 mentative persons would not be content with so slow a 

 method of conducting their discussions as a monthly 

 magazine would afford. 



I AM obliged to admit that the introduction of the 

 correspondence element, and especially of the replies to 

 correspondents, was a mistake from the beginning. We 

 have had communications of great value from several 

 correspondents, and among the questions asked have been 

 many which it has afforded myself and others pleasure to 

 deal with. But the trouble has arisen which always, as 

 it seems, must arise in such cases, — the difficulty of ex- 

 cluding correspondence of the argumentative sort, sug- 

 gested not so much by any desire to get at the truth as 

 by the wish to air theories which have had their origin 

 in ignorance or misapprehension. The trouble is not so 

 much that correspondence of this sort occupies space 

 which can be ill spared, as that it tends to drive away, 

 gradually but surely, such correspondents as really have 

 interesting matter to communicate. I have to thank 

 several able writers for the kindness with which they 

 have resisted the natural tendency to withdraw from 

 correspondence leading to controversy, and sometimes to 

 controversy of the idlest possible kind. But the influence 

 of the sense of discomfort thus occasioned must tell in 

 the long run. I know this from my own experience, 



correspondence colum 

 of the association in 

 with ,:..,; ■.•.^.^-,. 

 squ;ir. ! , , - • ■ 



in til- ... -■ . ;• 

 form.,!, ' . i ■ 



1(1 to withdraw from the 



^li'jlish Mechanic becaust- 



f iind mvsclf brought 



s l.\ 



to an 



. 1 , ■ ... :! ostaldislicd fact< are made 



' I'ji'cts for discussion, where 



: ; i . I'll misunderstood. In the 



coluiiii.- . : K -. a: i, li. i.ifter, scientific, literary, and 



artistic matters will be dealt with by those who know, 

 not discussed between those who know and those who do 

 not know. 



With regard to questions, I simply cannot longer afford 

 time to answer them in Kjtowledge. I have had great 

 pleasure in replying to legitimate questions, and so I am 

 sure has my friend the acting Editor. But questions have 

 been poured in which are not legitimate. We have been 

 asked to solve problems given in examinations, — as if we 

 were in the private tutor LusiiK --. ^^^ ' .i , 1. en asked to 

 explain matters whicli sli.-uM i ' 1 : uxt-books. 



Men so ill-informed or so 1 u 1 1 1 1 . : - r t hat they 



cannot understand simple exi-lni.i'i i ■. I .i'. .started out 

 as original discoverers, impounders rf new theories of the 

 uni\erse, and so forth, abusing us for not at once accepting 

 their perplexities as new and brilliant lights. Then among 

 the letters sent to us (in company, be it alwaj-s admitted, 

 with others that are most pleasing) are some giving vent 

 to the hee-haws of vulgar buffoonery. '• Jolly Dogs " (want - 

 ing knowledge, but what they want with Knowledge we 

 do not find) send letters smelling of stale tobacco and sug- 

 gestive of beery influences, beginning (for example) 

 " You'll be the death of me, I know you will," and going 

 on, perhaps, to ask who on earth believes the untruths 

 (monosyllabic) which geologists, chemists, or astronomei's 

 are always telling, — making special reference, it may be, 

 to some of the most elementary truths in the scieneos. 

 jeered at. 



All this would not in the least matter if the work of 

 answering correspondents were in itself light. But in 

 reality the work is not light ; it has taken time which 

 could very ill be spared : it has in fact involved a costly 

 expenditure of both time and labour, for wliich I have 

 had no return. I withdraw from the work, after giving 

 it four Years' fair trial, with the expression of my thanks 

 to the "laany kindly eoriv.-] ondents with whom I have 

 been lioULrlit int(.i eontaet in this part of my work on 

 KNuWLtL'GE, of my regret that our jdeasant fellowship 

 should have been in some degree impaired by the irrup- 

 tion" of persons ill-informed or ill-mannered, and of my 

 sorrow that apart from this I could not have continued 

 the work. I have much work to do, or at least which I 

 wish and hope to do ; my health and strength are not 

 what they have been ; and I must devote what time and 

 capacity for work may remain to me, to tlie more seriouR 

 business I have in hand. 



I 



to matters ( 

 form useful 

 that directic 



s the Gossip columns will 

 xtended, questions relating 

 nay still be dealt with in a 

 ler. I i:,roraise nothing in 

 > I do not want to i 



questions, and partly because I cannot tell what tin 

 find available fir such mattere. 



il 



