SOME REMARKABLE INSECTS. 527 



philosophically, but they have added practically little, if any- 

 thing, to our curative resources. It is hardly to be set down to 

 their discredit that they have incidentally favored the reign of 

 the platform hypnotizer or the vagaries of the subjects at La 

 Charity ; that is their misfortune rather than their fault, but it is 

 a grave misfortune. But the intervention of authority might at 

 the present, in respect to the latter, cut short these absurdities 

 and put an end to some social mischiefs which have fastened on 

 to them and hang to their skirts. Thus much as to the socio- 

 logical question. To the student of " psychological phenomena " 

 it has a great interest to note how successive functions may be 

 separately abolished as the brain is partially set to sleep, and in 

 what exaggerated forms the remaining activities may be brought 

 upon the stage when restraining self-consciousness is stilled. The 

 vulgar, too, may find an ignoble amusement in the antics of these 

 drinkers of petroleum and vinegar, in the semi-idiotic postures 

 and proceedings of the hypnotized manikin, as they do in afan- 

 tocchini show or a puppet play. But against such philosophic 

 satisfactions and vulgar amusements must be set the avowed and 

 the unconfessed mischiefs, and who can doubt that these outbal- 

 ance any good result which can be discerned ? — Nineteenth Cen- 

 tury. 



[Concluded.] 



SOME REMARKABLE INSECTS. 



By WILLIAM J. FOX. 



THE great majority of persons have no idea of the numerous 

 and singular forms of insects. They are all called " bugs " by 

 most people, yet not one tenth of their number are really bugs. 

 These latter are classed by themselves and are called Hemiptera. 

 Beetles are not bugs, being totally different things, and form what 

 are known as the Coleoptera, which means sheath-wing, because 

 of the two large plates on the back that cover the true wings, 

 which consist of thin membrane. These covers are called elytra. 

 The butterflies and moths form another one of these orders, being 

 called Lepidoptera, or scale- wing, on account of the tiny scales 

 with which the wings are covered. No doubt many of the readers 

 of this article have noticed the powdery substance which comes 

 off a butterfly or moth on handling it. These are the scales, and, 

 should any reader possess a microscope and place the wing or 

 part of one under it, I think he will be repaid for his trouble. 

 The " dragon flies " and " devil's needles " form the order Neurop- 

 tera, which means vein-winged. So it is with the flies and the 



