THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 79.] SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1858. [Price id. 
EXAMINATIONS. 
At present there is a perfect rage for 
Examinations ; we have the Civil Ser- 
vice Examinations, the East India 
Company’s Examinations, the Society 
of Arts Examinations and the Oxford 
Middle Class Examinations. Every 
body is either an examiner or going to 
be examined. Well, so far good; we 
have no doubt that examinations really 
are beneficial in enabling individuals 
to obtain a more defined outline, as it 
were, of their own knowledge, and both 
questioner and answerer are no doubt 
benefited by the process. 
But if Examinations are useful for 
general knowledge, would they not be 
very serviceable for Entomology ? Why 
should not a class of Hymenopterists be 
examined by Mr. Smith in his ‘ British 
Bees?’ Why should not a class of 
Coleopterists be examined by Mr. Daw- 
son in his ‘ Geodephaga?’ Why should 
not a class of Micro-Lepidopterists be 
examined by Mr. Stainton ? 
Seriously, we think something ser- 
viceable might be done in this way ; 
but how are the examinations to be 
conducted? In writing or viva voce? 
Of course the difficulty of a viva voce 
examination would be very great, and, 
we fancy, insuperable; for instance, 
how are John Hobbs, who lives at 
Thetford, and William Bunbury, who 
lives at Horncastle, to get a viva voce 
examination, supposing they take to 
the study of Coleoptera ? Are they to 
come to London, or is the examiner 
in Coleoptera to go to Thetford and 
Horncastle, and, in either case, who is 
to pay the expenses of locomotion ? We 
fancy it would puzzle even Dr. Booth 
to solve that problem. 
Hence we assume that, unless per- 
haps in London, where an examination 
viva voce might answer, for all rural 
districts the examination must be in 
writing. Now who are to be the can- 
didates? is it to be limited to any 
age? or is any old don to be allowed 
to go in and show his proficiency, and 
astonish the juveniles? A youth of 
seventeen would see no amusement in 
competing with Senex, who is just 
seventy ; and, in like manner, twenty- 
five would not care to come in com- 
petition with fifty. 
And yet it is quite possible that a 
man may have attained forty or fifty 
years of age before his attention is 
diverted to the study of insects, so that, 
though a middle-aged man, he may 
still be only an entomological babe; 
but still the difficulties seem so great 
