OF FULGORA CANDELARIA. 115 



year sown, produce good and fine melons. The insect, of 

 course, is rare, but the common consent of the inhabitants of 

 that part proves it to be true ; and, therefore, it is true until 

 some one proves, by direct observation, that there is no such 

 insect. 



" O medici mediam pertundite venam !" 



O most learned Rusticus, what hath befallen thee, to allow 

 thyself to fall into such a train of reasoning ? Common consent 

 forsooth ! Well, how many things have been believed by 

 common consent, and are still believed by the multitude, which 

 are false. Let the learned Doctor read Azara's Quadrupedos de 

 Paraguay ; let him there observe how many things reported by 

 travellers, and believed by common consent to be true, are found 

 to be false when examined by competent observers. Are we to 

 believe, as the vulgar do, by common consent, that hedge-hogs 

 suck cows, — that they go into orchards in the autumn, and 

 curling themselves into a ball, roll about amongst the fallen 

 apples, and thus carry them home to their winter hiding-place? 

 Who is to prove a direct negative to this story? 



But the Doctor has another argument. Dead cicodce shine, 

 therefore dead Fulgorce may shine ; certainly this may be. 

 Is our fire-fly dead? No! she is alive, and, 



" Non hiemes illam, non flabra, neque imbres 

 Convellunt ; immota manet." 



Why then should we put a dead Fulgora on the cover, or 

 the title-page ? Dead fish are luminous ; but what would the 

 Doctor have said, had our excellent friend, Yarrell, placed 

 on the cover of his admirable British Fishes, a putrescent 

 salmon? Thus much for our friend the Doctor. Our 

 Editor has quoted a passage, which is a good specimen 

 of the authority we have for the luminosity of Fulgora. 

 " They are," says the author, "luminous, but I have never 

 seen them alive." Then how does he know they are luminous ? 

 Who told him ? I should say that he had read it in Merian, 

 or had heard it from some one who had adopted the notion 

 first broached by her ladyship. In the remarks made about 

 common consent by the Editor I fully agree. My friend, the 

 author of Sphinx Vespiformis, who, on some occasions, has 

 shown himself by no means slow in resolving, and acting too, 



