218 



• KNOWLEDGE » 



[Aug. 25, 1882. 



colour, with a bar of n puler liuo bcyoiul the coutro. The cater- 

 pillHr feitls on the nmple. auJ is to bo found in June and July. 



The next sjiecies we loiue to is the Pale Prominent (ftiloiontis 

 Palpina), which is much more common than the last. This moth 

 is of a pale browu coloar, with three bands of a darker brown, and 

 black dots and stripes scattered over the wings. The caterpillar 

 feeds on the poplar and sallow, and is of a green colour, covered 

 with small raise*! white 8)>ots, arranged in si.\ bands, with a yellow 

 line do«-n each side. It changes into a chrysalis in the beginning of 

 OctoU'r. and remains in that state during the winter. The perfect 

 insect appears in June. 



Tlie tolerably common Coxcomb Prominent (Notodonta Camelina) 

 is the next in order. It is a very handsome insect, the fore wings 

 being of a rtisty bmwn, and the hind wings of a similar but paler 

 colour. The caterpillar is very i>eculiar in form, and feeds ou the 

 oak, birch, maple, Ac. ; the body is green, with worts or raised 

 spots on the back, tipped with pink, from which issue tufts of black 

 hairs. On each side of the bo<ly is a white line, composed of spots 

 joined together with stripes ; the caterpillar is to be found during 

 the present month and the beginning of next. The moth itself 

 comes out daring the summer mouths. 



The Maple Prominent {Xotodonta CucuUina) is a very rare 

 insect, the caterpillar of which feeds on the maple. It has been 

 caught at Halton, in Buckinghamshire, in the month of May. The 

 caterpillar appears in July. 



Next we come to the Scarce Prominent (A'o(orfoii(a Carmelita). 

 This moth is to be found on the wing in April, and should bo 

 sought for on the trunks of birch-trees and places adjacent. The 

 fore wings are reddish grey, with the upper edge darker where 

 there are two ))alc yellow spots, from which proceed lines and 

 black dots transversely. The caterpillar is green, with a largo 

 nnmbcr of raised yellow dots all over the surface, and a buff- 

 colonred line down the side, and is to be found in the month of 

 June on birch-trees. 



Next upon our list of Prominents comes the White Prominent 

 (Xotodonta Uirolo'), a very rare and beautiful moth. It appears 

 on the wing in June, and is said to have been captured in StafTord- 

 shire. The wings of this moth are white, with black spots and 

 other markings, the front margin of the fore wings being slightly 

 arched. The hind wings are light, but without spots, and the 

 whole of the head and the rest of the body of the same colour. The 

 caterpillar, like most of the Prominent larvae, is green, with a 

 yellow 8tri|ic down each side. 



The remaining six species will be described in next paper, as 

 space forbids in this. 



Peofessob Tommasi has written a letter to the Piccolo, describing 

 a case of hydrophobia in which the powerful drug pilicarpiiia had 

 been used without effect. The professor writes : — " The prodigious 

 effects of this potent remedy soon showed themselves -profuse 

 sweats and enormons salivation ; and yet the malady continued its 

 fatal course as usual. I was one of those who had hoped in the 

 good eCTects of pilicar])ina in cases of hydrophobia, and now this 

 hope has vanished, and it is necessary that the fact should be 

 known." 



Moi-\TAlNEEBiNG AS ExEBClSE. — Mountaineering is doubtless 

 excellent exercise for the nervously strong and muscular, but it is 

 unfortunate that it should be the pastime of the very class of 

 persons least well fitted for its pursuit. Those who lead habitually 

 intellectual, and, to a large extent sedentary lives, incur great peril 

 of injury and accident when they resort to this arduous and 

 altogether exceptional form of exercise in their annual holiday. 

 They may be steady of nerve and clear-headed, strong of wind and 

 limb -, but the strain is too severe, and the overtaxed faculties of 

 sonic and power msiy at any moment give way suddenly, when life 

 will tic jeo[«rrlised or sacrificed. Members of our own profession 

 need a word of caution in renprct to the way they spend their 

 hardly-enmed vacation. We do not think th.it, as a "class, they are 

 particularly addicted to the climbing of monntains, but there are 

 some who forget that unaccustomed labour of any kind, although 

 it may be performed impulsively and i)erhaps with seeming ease — 

 because th'-re is for the moment some reserve of force on hand — is 

 not safe work. A breakdown must reasonably be expec'ed, and it 

 is not prudent to venture life or limb on the hazard. Mountain- 

 eering, like everything else, requires long and continnous practice 

 to make it an exercise which can rt^asonably lio reckoned as salutary 

 and within the liounds of a sound discretion. It is too laborious, 

 t'K-i fxa/-ling to the scnsc-orgiinii, and tixj severely exhausting to all 

 the (lowers of life and enert.'Ti-, to bo undi-rtaken without more than 

 a men' fwling of cournge and power, which may be misleading. 

 The monntaini-er thould be always in training, or ho should only 

 attempt such climbing as calls for no particular cxiicnditure of 

 nerve or moscle force, and involvea no extraordinary risk. — The 

 Lancet. 



Itttsvi to tfte (Eliitor, 



renponfihU fur th« Ppiuitimofh'ts correrpondentK 

 utci-iptu or to corrfspouJ uitk their irrittrB, Alt 

 commtimciittOHM tnoHia be a* anort u» pimtibU^ conuiattntly v^xih full and clear itait* 

 menU qf the tcriter'e meaning.'} 



All Editorial , 

 all Bu$in€M$ cot 

 etreet, W.C. 



All Urmitfancet, Cheques, and Tost^O^lce Orders rhould be made payable to 

 Meaara. yVyman ^ Sont. 



•,• All lettera to the Editor kHI he Numbered. Ear vont>enienc» if reference, 

 eorretpotideutft when referrinq to any letter^ will oblige by mentioning tte number 

 and the page on tehit-h it appeura. 



MR. JIA'ITIIKW .\l!N()I,n OX KXOWLEDOE. 



[520]— I learn by your extract from the Niiit-tcenlh Century, oi> 

 p. 193, that 31r. Matthew Arnold is still hammering away at his 

 chronic craze, concerning the supernal importance of the study of 

 ancient classical literature. It may appear presumptuous on my 

 part to differ with the apostle of sweetness and light—nay, I am 

 thoroughly sure that it ui/( ap])car presumptuous to Mr. Arnold 

 himself, affording as he does so admirable an illustration of the 

 appositcness of the celebrated definition that " toleration is lotting 

 you believe as I believe, intoleration wishing me to believe as you 

 believe." As one, however, who, perforce devoted some years of 

 his life to classical study, and who has spent no inconsiderable 

 part of the remainder of it in tho acquisition of knowledge 

 of the natural and physical sciences, I at least claim to speak with 

 a certain amount of oxperionco, expei'ience which, in tlio ease of 

 scientific ttady, I venture to think Mr. Arnold is scarcely in a 

 position to ^■haro. Now, if tho end of life be to cultivate the 

 u-silii'tii- f;i(ully in tiian, tlurc ixi.sts, I venture to affirm, oven in 

 mnil.rii (li. ^:n iiniljiii^r ,,|' imi-,1 i;i>viil) literature, tho most ample 

 ni;iii-ii.iis f..rtliis |,iir|Hisc; .•iic.h.-ilile, moreover, to thousands to 

 whom tlic piuiib .Enc-as j-Lpiusuiits nothing, and to whom the 

 childish and indecent legends of the inhabitants of Olympus are 

 (happily) a sealed book. The classics, in real truth, nicroly supply 

 a system of mental gymnastics ; suited well enough to a certain 

 intellectual typo, but failing conspicuously when applied to another. 

 I really wonder how much there is in our extant classical literature 

 which is read for its own sake ?- -by which I mean for the saka 

 of the information or instruction conveyed by it. It suits tho pur- 

 pose of Mr. Arnold to covertly sneer at and depreciate the value of 

 the statement of bui h a fact as that " when a taper bi)riiB tho wax 

 is converted into carbonic acid and water;" but I confess that I 

 find more that ministers to " the sense which wo have in us for 

 beauty " in Faraday's " Chemical History of a Candle," than I do 

 in many parts of the works of Aristophanes : while I assuredly 

 derive much more vivid impressions of what is most distinctively 

 bestial in tho human race from tho perusal of Juvenal's Sixth 

 Satire than I do from learning, through tho imperishable 

 researches of Darwin, that the ancestor of man was pro- 

 bably "a hairy (piadruped, furnished with a tail and pointed 

 ears, probably arboreal in his habits." I should be more 

 urgent in insisting on tho essential unsoundness of Mr. 

 Matthew Arnold's advico "to chooso to be educated in humane 

 letters rather than in tho natural sciences," wire T not convinced 

 that, in the present enlightened condition of |)i;l.lir ..iiiiiinti, he hnn 

 but small chance of being listened to. 'I I i '■' • ■ "I ihr 



Cosmos is destitute of those elements win I- i i" >■■ inruiH 



ajsthetic faculties, or exercises a less refining ml ;• r i 1 1 liuiriaii 



mind than tho perusal of nasty fables, no onf Imi ;i very l.uiatical 

 enthusiast would, I think, now venture to assert. I coiifi'ss that 

 investigations into tho physical structure of our visilijo Stellar 

 Universe has exercised an indefinitely more elevating and jiurifying 

 influence upon my own mind than even tli(- iiirusal of the story of" 

 Leda and the Swan did. 



A Fellow of the Roval Astoo.vouical .Society. 



