THE MEDitERRANAEN NATURALIST 
447 
period of life, will find not only that he has much 
to learn, but much also to unlearn. — Herschel. 
Some men are like nails, easily drawn, others 
are like rivets, not drawable at all. — Burroughs. 
The view of nature ought to be grand and free, 
uninfluenced by motives of proximity, social sym- 
pathy, or relative utility. — Burroughs. 
Men and communities in this world are often j 
in the position of arctic explorers, who are mak- 
ing great speed in a given direction, while the 
ice-floe beneath them is making greater speed in 
the opposite direction. — Burroughs. 
To observe well is not so easy a thing as some 
per pie imagine . — C arpen ter 
Wheresover the naturalist turns his eye, life 
or the germ of life lies spreads before him. — Hum- 
boldt. 
Science is nothing more than the refinement of 
common sense, making use of facts ahead} 7 known, 
to acquire new facts. — Sir H. Davy 
The most insignificant insects and reptiles are 
of much more consequence, and have much more 
influence in the economy of nature, than the in- 
curious are aware of.— White 
Wisdom will out; it is the only thing in this 
world that cannot be suppressed or annulled. — 
Burroughs. 
The air is an element of more than weight. — 
Isaac Walton. 
Communion with nature awakens within us 
perceptive faculties that had long lain dormant. 
— Humboldt. 
Naturalists can only account for the phenomena 
they witness by attributing the works of the crea- 
tion to the action of a Creator. — Milne Edwards. 
We are much more apt to seek for explanations 
of phenomena that rarely present themselves, 
than of those which we daiiy witness. — Carpenter 
There is a species of superstition which inclines 
men to take on trust whatever assumes the name 
of science. — II. Miller. 
As in repeating a well-known song, so in in- 
stinct, one action follows another by a sort of 
rythm . — Damvin 
I Common Beetles of the Maltese Islands. 
I 
By Dr. A. Caruana Gatto. 
It is a remarkable fact that whilst in most coun- 
tries, beetles are among the first objects which 
draw the naturalist’s attention, forming one of the 
chief attractions to beginners and one of the 
pursuits most looked after by collectors and 
scientists, in Malta all other Natural History 
branches have, comparatively speaking, received 
much more attention, whilst scarcely anything is 
known about the Maltese Coleoptera. 
There is no work dealing exclusively with them; 
nor has any catalogue of the species to be found 
here been published. Mention has been made in 
general entomological works of some species col- 
lected in Malta during the short stay of some 
entomologist and descriptions of these species 
have appeared from time to time in scientific 
periodicals which are to be had with the greatest 
difficulty. Besides these we have only Prof. Gulia’s 
Course of Entomological lectures delivered in 1857 
to a class of gardeners under the auspices of 
Governor Sir W. Reid at the palace of St. Antonio. 
The elementary character of this work and the 
superficial way in which species are dealt with in 
it, do not allow us to consider it as answering any 
other purpose beyond that of a series of popular 
lectures on Maltese Entomology, what Prof. Gulia 
explicitly declares in his introduction. It must- 
be acknowledged though that Gulia’s work, as the 
first and only contribution to the study of our 
insects is very useful and it shows that in compa- 
rison with the present time much greater impor- 
tance was attached to and more notice was taken 
of Entomology as applied to Agriculture 40 years 
ago than is done at the present time. 
We had not then the orange and vine disease 
nor did our countrymen fare so badly asnow-a-days, 
but the agricultural education of gardeners was 
thought much more of. It was thought that a 
course of popular lectures on economic and agri- 
cultural entomology would considerably benefit 
the Maltese gardeners, a class which have such 
wrong ideas of the insect-plagues which sooften at- 
tack their fields and gardens. Unfortunately L 
was, however, the first and last of what might have 
been a most useful series of annual lectures. Gan 
