OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



29 



his insect was arrived at its perfect state, he opened the 

 box in which he kept it. The animal flew out and left 

 behind it a red spot. He compared this with the spots of 

 the bloody shower, and found they were alike. At the same 

 time he observed there was a prodigious quantity of butter- 

 flies flying about, and that the drops of the miraculous rain 

 were not to be found upon the tiles, nor even upon the upper 

 surface of the stones, but chiefly in cavities and places where 

 rain could not easily come. Thus did this judicious observer 

 dispel the ignorant fears and terror which a natural phe- 

 nomenon had caused. - 



The same author relates an instance of the gardener of a 

 gentleman being thrown into a horrible fright by digging up 

 some of the curious cases, which I shall hereafter describe to 

 you, of the leaf-cutter bees, and which he conceived to be the 

 eflect of witchcraft portending some terrible misfortune. By 

 the advice of the priest of the parish he even took a journey 

 from Rouen to Paris, to show them to his master : but he, 

 happily having more sense than the man, carried them 

 to M. Nollet, an eminent naturalist, who having seen similar 

 productions was aware of the cause, and opening one of the 

 cases, while the gardener stood aghast at his temerity, pointed 

 out the grub that it contained, and thus sent him back with 

 a light heart, relieved from all his apprehensions.^ 



Every one has heard of the death-watch, and knows of the 

 superstitious notion of the vulgar, that in whatever house its 

 drum is heard one of the family will die before the end of the 

 year. These terrors, in particular instances, where they lay 

 hold of weak minds, especially of sick or hypochondriacal 

 persons, may cause the event that is supposed to be prognos- 

 ticated. A small degree of entomological knowledge would 

 relieve them from all their fears, and teach them that this 

 heart-sickening tick is caused by a small beetle {Anohium 

 tessellatum) which lives in timber, and is merely a call to its 

 companion. Attention to Entomology may therefore be 

 rendered very useful in this view, since nothing certainly is 

 more desirable than to deliver the human mind from the 



1 Reaum. i. 667. 



2 Reaum. vi, 99, 100. Kirby Mon. Ap. Ang. i. 157, 158. 



