it he timing Jlaturaltsl : 



A Penny Weekly Magazine of Nati.ral History. 



No. 48. 



SEPTEMBER 25th, 1880. 



Vol. 1 



EXAMINATIONS. 



SOME twenty years ago it was sug- 

 gested in the pages of the In- 

 telligencer, that examinations in 

 Entomology might be held with 

 advantage. We believe nothing ever 

 came of the idea, but surely in these 

 days of Civil Service and other com- 

 petitions something more might be 

 accomplished if any good could be done 

 by it. Examinations are not only 

 useful for finding out how much 

 competitors really know, but they help 

 students to learn how ignorant they 

 are, and that is a great matter to 

 accomplish. We have heard of an 

 [individual who on being asked if he could 

 play the piano, replied he thought he 

 i could, but really he had never tried. 

 As our actual knowledge expands, we 

 | become more and more aware how very 

 jinuch there is that we do not know, 

 lind those who know most, are most 

 likely to use language like that attributed 

 l,o Sir Isaac Newton, and speak lightly 

 |>f their own knowledge, but with be- 

 I oming reverence of that great ocean of 

 •uth that is yet unexplored. On the 



other hand, those who know very little 

 indeed, are apt to imagine they know 

 everything, or so nearly everything as 

 to make little difference. Another 

 great advantage bo be gained by 

 examinations, is that they teach students 

 to put their ideas into words, to ex- 

 press themselves clearly, and so that 

 they may be understood. It is 

 astonishing how much difference there 

 is in the way different people express 

 themselves in describing anything. 

 One will use a multiplicity of unsuit- 

 able words, and the sense will be lost 

 in the great amount of sound. 

 Another will use very much fewer 

 words, but so well chosen, so pithy and 

 appropriate, that the meaning desired 

 to be conveyed could not be mis- 

 understood by anyone. The ability to 

 describe in common words, things that 

 are, as we may say, out of the common, 

 is not by any means universal. In 

 describing objects of Natural History it 

 is not possible to do so without using 

 technical words, but while a scientific 

 description may with perfect propriety 

 consist altogether of technical terms, a 



