NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 361 



intelligence, the entomologist is essentially scientific. When the 

 ''mere collector" begins to set about his work with intelligence he 

 ceases to own the name, and becomes an entomologist, as full-fledged 

 and as essentially scientific as the propounder of natural laws and the 

 theorist. The individual (and this an instance of a mere collector) 

 who designedly picks up shells on a sea-shore with no other purpose 

 than to consign to a smaller area objects that have been diffused over 

 a greater is looked upon by me, and, I will venture to say, the rest of 

 humanity, including Mr. Olaxton, as not only far from being a concho- 

 logist, but as little short of a monomaniac. And yet, despite the fact 

 that Mr. Claxton and the class he represents stigmatise themselves 

 with the incriminating appellation of "mere collectors," we find they 

 venture to defend themselves on the ground that they are seeking to 

 acquire a full appreciation of the beauties of nature. In other words, 

 Mr. Claxton and his colleagues, instead of striving to elucidate the 

 scientific problem of enjoying the natural beauty of the earth (which 

 by the way is the ultimate scientific problem) through the medium of 

 natural laws, have attacked the subject in a wider and more direct 

 field. On the other side of the question, to accuse real scientific men 

 of trying to think away the beauties of the objects they investigate, is 

 a mistake that belongs to an old and uneducated school. I think it 

 probable, however, that Mr. Claxton has excellent cause for appealing 

 against the attacks of those that have necessarily sprung into exist- 

 ence, like the tares with the wheat, together with the "new order" 

 that has been destined to replace " the old." — G. W. Smith ; College, 

 Winchester. 



I should like to be allowed to make a few suggestions on the subject 

 brought forward by Rev. W. Claxton (ante, p. 286). He there defines 

 collectors as "those whose only object is to obtain a more intimate 

 knowledge of the external appearance of the wonders of creation." 

 Now, omitting the words " external appearance of" and using " crea- 

 tion" in a somewhat metaphorical sense, this appears to me to be an 

 accurate statement of the aim of every scientific worker : for, as Huxley 

 has said, a scientific "law" is "nothing more than the statement of 

 the order in which facts occur," and I suppose no one will dispute the 

 proposition that as long as any one is trying to further such a know- 

 ledge, either of external appearance or any other attribute of insects, 

 he is, ipso facto, an entomologist. I expect, however, most of us will 

 doubt whether the definition quoted applies even to most collectors ; 

 such persons seem as a rule to be imbued with a sort of commercial 

 spirit and respect for public opinion which is very far removed from 

 that of the pure searchers after truth that Rev. W. Claxton would have 

 us believe they really are, e.g. the collecting of varieties, which has 

 become fashionable of late years, has been pointed to as a more 

 scientific mode than the old one of preserving normal specific types, 

 and regarding all departures therefrom as worthless; and no doubt 

 this is a true view, but nevertheless the scene often seems to have been 

 merely shifted from specific types to varietal types without changing 

 the background, with the result that the less striking intermediate 

 forms are not considered as good as the extreme forms, and this has 

 in some cases led to a struggle among varieties for a place in our 

 cabinets, much to the detriment of those unfortunate specimens which 



