CUEIOUS PROPERTY. 135 



Of course, I was invisible for some days, and after 

 returning to my work, was attacked in precisely the 

 same manner again. This second mischance set me 

 thinking ; and on consultation with the medical 

 department, the fault was attributed to the hot sand 

 which I had been using. 



So, when I went again to the work, I discarded 

 sand, and stuffed the caterpillars with cotton wool 

 cut very short, like chopped straw. My horror may 

 be conjectured, but not imagined, when I found, for 

 the third time, that my face was beginning to assume 

 its tubercular aspect. 



Then I did what I ought to have done before, 

 went to my entomological books, and found that 

 various caterpillars possessed this "urticating" pro- 

 perty, as they learnedly called it, or as I should say, 

 that they stung worse than nettles. Since that 

 time, I have never touched a palmer-worm with my 

 fingers. 



It was perhaps a proper punishment for neglecting 

 the knowledge that others had recorded. But I 

 always had rather an aversion to book entomology, 

 and used to work out an insect as far as possible, 

 and then see what books said about it. Certainly, 

 although not a very rapid mode of work, yet it was 

 a very sure one, and fixed the knowledge in the 

 mind. 



On the same plate, fig. 4 a, is shown the caterpillar 

 of this moth, a creature conspicuous from the tufts of 



