302 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Rep 



Reputation without Reality. 



In Java, and some other of the great Indian islands, there 

 exists a black panther, which has gained, it is difficult to say 

 how, the reputation of extraordinary ferocity and daring. He 

 owes his fame solely to the imagination of the natives, and 

 differs from his congeners in no single respect but the blackish 

 colour of his skin. A skilful naturalist, who was for some 

 years a resident in Java, relates that while botanising in the 

 fields and jungles early in the day, he frequently roused the 

 black panthers in their lairs. At first he was somewhat startled 

 by the apparition of an animal of such terrible renown, but 

 seeing him turn tail very quickly on his approach, he soon grew 

 reassured, and troubled himself no more at these rencontres 

 than if he had met a cat or a dog. There are plenty of " black 

 panther " reputations in society. In literature, the arts, politics, 

 and philanthropy, it is easy to find fine specimens of men en- 

 joying a great reputation, which they owe solely to the credulity 

 or ignorance of those of their fellow-men who have not the 

 seeing eye to distinguish between the real and the spurious, or 

 the intellectual capacity to test a vulgar renown by actual facts. 



Fictitious Reputation. 



According to popular notions the blind-worm is a terribly 

 poisonous creature, and by many persons is thought to be even 

 more venomous than the viper, whereas it is perfectly harmless, 

 having neither the will nor the ability to bite, its temper being 

 as quiet as its movements, and its teeth as innocuous as its jaws 

 are weak. Mr. J. G. Wood says that the origin of this opinion 

 may be found in the habit of constantly thrusting out its broad, 

 black, flat tongue with its slightly forked tip ; for the popular 

 mind considers the tongue to be the sting, imagining it to be 

 both the source of the venom and the weapon by which it is 

 injected into the body, and so logically classes all creatures with 

 forked tongues under the common denomination of poisonous 

 animals. IL. 



