COLEOPTERA, 441 
of the south of Russia the lovers of sporting are in the habit of 
making their dogs, from time to time, swallow (as a preservative) 
half of a Cetonia with bread or a little wine. Every one in those 
countries is persuaded of the efficacy of this means for stopping 
the development of the disease. One ought not, perhaps, to 
reject a belief so widespread and deeply rooted without some ex- 
periments to guarantee us in doing so, for medicine does not yet 
possess any remedy against hydrophobia. It might not then be 
useless to try this. 
Two smaller species than the Rose beetle, the Cetonia punctulata 
and the Cetonia pubescens, which has yellowish hairs, live on the 
flowers of thistles. Western Africa, the Cape, Madagascar, &c., 
are very rich in species of Cetonie. Among 
the Cetoniides is the genus Goliathus, gigantic 
insects which inhabit Africa and the East 
Indies. Their total length sometimes attains 
from three to five inches. Their colours 
are generally a dull white or yellow, which 
has nothing metallic about it, with spots of a 
velvety black; these are due to a sort of down 
of an extreme thinness, and which very easily 
comes off. The head of these enormous Coleop- 
tera is generally cut or scooped out, and is Fig. 425.—Cetonia argentea. 
adorned sometimes with one or two horns. Their legs, strong and 
robust, are armed with spurs, and present on their exterior sharp 
indentations, which give to these insects a crabbed physiognomy, 
which their inoffensive habits ure far from justifying. All these 
horns, and all these teeth which look so terrible, are nothing in 
fact, with a great number of these insects, but simple ornaments. 
They compose the picturesque uniform of the males. It is equi- 
valent to the bear-skin caps, the flaming helmets, and the bullion 
fringed epaulettes of our soldiers. The dress of the female 
Goliathus is much more modest, as is becoming to the sex. We 
here represent the Goliathus Derbyana (Fig. 426) and Polyphemus 
(Fig. 427.) 
The Goliaths were formerly excessively rare in collections, and 
of a price inaccessible to ordinary amateurs—one single specimen 



costing as much as twenty pounds. But for some time the 

