G8 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



has to be learned to pass an examination, and when this is accomplished it is thrown 

 aside as having terved its purpose. It may be true, and very likely is, that " Naturalists " 

 like " Poets " are born, not made ; yet I have known parents to prohibit their children 

 indulging a strong inclination to collect natural history specimens, which they greatly 

 admired and in which they took much pleasure, for fear that it might interfere with their 

 school lessons. And by the time they had left school they had lost all taste for natural 

 history. A young lady whose father is known in his locality as an artist and a geologist, 

 and whose brother stands very high in financial circles, but has also gained for himself a 

 name in geology, told me that she was once at a bazaar when her uncle, her mother's 

 brother, said he would pay for anything she liked to take from a particular table. She 

 choose an odd-looking shell in the rough. He scouted the idea, and wanted her to decide 

 upon something that he thought was of some value. But no ; she wanted nothing but 

 that shell; and she wanted it very badly. Then handling and looking admiringly upon 

 her treasure she thoughtfully remarked : " We inherited that propensity." From your 

 father's side, I remarked. Oh ! she exclaimed, laughicgly, there is nothing of that sort 

 whatever on our mother's side. I knew a woman whose boy was given to collecting 

 natural history specimens, and would take them to his mother and would speak of their 

 beauties or peculiarities, and she would look and listen with apparent interest, but she 

 confeESfd to me that she could see nothing of what he was talking about in them. She 

 did not let him know. She knew they were to him a great source of innocent enjoyment, 

 the treasures which his heart instinctively turned to, and which drew him to his home, 

 and made it exceedingly pleasant for him to stay there ; and she was pleased. "Wise 

 woman, if unfortunately defective in her perceptive faculties. A personal collection is 

 what is wanted to give interest and permanence to the study of natural history. Whilst 

 others derive benefit from looking at it, it may help to induce them to begin one also. 



Elaborate discourses have been given upon " How to study Natural History." Some 

 of them well calculated to crush out all aspirations in that direction, as they land you at 

 once in a tangle of unintelligible phraseology. We have, I dare say, all heard the 

 directions for, how to cook a hare : " First, catch the hare." To any one who has a 

 desire to obtain some knowledge of the natural sciences in any of its numerous branches 

 I would say, first collect your specimens. That is, such as are conveniently obtainable, 

 which excludes astronomy and seismology. Then examine your specimens, when you will 

 probably learn something about them that you did not know before. This may induce 

 you to look at them again, to discover yet something more. Taste can be cultivated, and 

 the faculty of observation is sharpened by exercise. Then you will likely want to collect 

 more, as your curiosity may have become excited ; curiohity leads to inquiry. Enquiry 

 when judiciously exercised leads to knowledge.. Knowledge when obtained is gratifying, 

 and in time the pursuit of it becomes a perfect pleasure. And the more you know the 

 easier and pleasanter it becomes to acquire more. Then keep that up, a little now and a 

 little again, and very soon you will find it such a delight that, no matcer what your con- 

 dition or occupation may be, you will find some time and opportunity to indulge in it. 

 And if you are endowed with capacity, endurance and perseverance you may attain to 

 the very highest position in your department ; but do not expect to begin there ; it is 

 not the rule at school to begin with mathematics and work down to the alphabet. 



A professor of natural history in a prominent educational institution wished to obtain 

 transparent wings of insects, such as the Neuroptera or gauze- wings, to make lantern- 

 slides of to throw enlarged upon a screen. These I was much pleased to provide him 

 with, and interesting and beautiful objects some of them made. He also wanted the 

 sting of a bee. Ii> was winter. I said I could give him dried specimens, but he might 

 find it difficult to secure a perfect one from such ; but from a fresh specimen it could be- 

 easily obtained. How 1 he inquired. Just squeeze the abdomen and it could be cut off 

 perfect, root and all. And where is it situated, iu the mouth 1 Oh, no, I replied, at the 

 other end. But a mosquito's is, is it not ? That man knew a good deal about many 

 things, but he must have commenced to learn about where the people usually leave off. 

 We find many men who seem to have forgotten that they ever were boys ; but one would 

 be almost ready to believe that the professor had never been a boy. 



