An Introduction to Entomology: Vol. 1
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Title: An Introduction to Entomology: Vol. 1
Author: William Kirby
William Spence
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Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN INTRODUCTION TO ENTOMOLOGY: VOL. 1 ***
[Illustration: Plate I]
AN
INTRODUCTION
TO
ENTOMOLOGY:
OR
ELEMENTS
OF THE
_NATURAL HISTORY OF INSECTS_:
WITH PLATES.
By WILLIAM KIRBY, M.A. F.R. AND L.S.
RECTOR OF BARHAM,
AND
WILLIAM SPENCE, ESQ. F.L.S.
IN FOUR VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
_FIFTH EDITION._
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR
LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN,
PATERNOSTER ROW.
1828.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY RICHARD TAYLOR,
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.
[Illustration]
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
SIR JOSEPH BANKS, BARONET,
ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S MOST HONOURABLE PRIVY
COUNCIL,
KNIGHT GRAND CROSS OF THE ORDER OF THE BATH,
PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, ETC.
WHOSE UNRIVALLED LIBRARY AND
PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS
HAVE FURNISHED MUCH OF THE MOST INTERESTING
MATTER THAT IT CONTAINS,
THE FOLLOWING WORK,
IN WHICH AN ATTEMPT IS MADE TO COPY
HIS ILLUSTRIOUS EXAMPLE,
BY POINTING OUT THE CONNEXION THAT EXISTS
BETWEEN NATURAL SCIENCE, AND AGRICULTURE,
AND THE ARTS,
IS, WITH HIS PERMISSION,
MOST GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED
BY HIS MOST OBLIGED
AND OBEDIENT SERVANTS,
THE AUTHORS.
ADVERTISEMENT
TO THIS EDITION.
Since the original Edition of the present work was published, a gradual
and great alteration has taken place in the nomenclature of the genera,
occasioned by the old ones being further subdivided according to their
natural groups, and each distinguished as a genus or subgenus by its
peculiar name. These names in the present Edition, in order to keep
pace with the progress of the science, have been generally adopted,
and some new ones introduced. The improved Index, which may be had
separately by the purchasers of the former Editions, will point out
from what old genera the new ones have been separated.
PREFACE.
One principal cause of the little attention paid to Entomology in
this country, has doubtless been the ridicule so often thrown upon
the science. The botanist, sheltered now by the sanction of fashion,
as formerly by the prescriptive union of his study with medicine, may
dedicate his hours to mosses and lichens without reproach; but in
the minds of most men, the learned as well as the vulgar, the idea
of the trifling nature of his pursuit is so strongly associated with
that of the diminutive size of its objects, that an _entomologist_ is
synonymous with every thing futile and childish. Now, when so many
other roads to fame and distinction are open, when a man has merely
to avow himself a botanist, a mineralogist, or a chemist--a student
of classical literature or of political economy--to ensure attention
and respect, there are evidently no great attractions to lead him
to a science which in nine companies out of ten with which he may
associate promises to signalize him only as an object of pity or
contempt. Even if he have no other aim than self-gratification, yet
"the sternest stoic of us all wishes at least for some one to enter
into his views and feelings, and confirm him in the opinion which he
entertains of himself:" but how can he look for sympathy in a pursuit
unknown to the world, except as indicative of littleness of mind[1]?
Yet such are the genuine charms of this branch of the study of
nature, that here as well as on the continent, where, from being
equally slighted, Entomology now divides the empire with her sister
Botany, this obstacle would not have been sufficient to deter numbers
from the study, had not another more powerful impediment existed--the
want of a popular and comprehensive Introduction to the science.
While elementary books on Botany have been multiplied amongst
us without end and in every shape, Curtis's translation of the
_Fundamenta Entomologiæ_, published in 1772; Yeats's _Institutions
of Entomology_, which appeared the year after; and Barbut's
_Genera Insectorum_, which came out in 1781--the two former in too
unattractive, and the latter in too expensive a form for general
readers--are the only works professedly devoted to this object, which
the English language can boast.
Convinced that this was the chief obstacle to the spread of
Entomology in Britain, the authors of the present work resolved to
do what was in their power to remove it, and to introduce their
countrymen to a mine of pleasure, new, boundless, and inexhaustible,
and which, to judge from their own experience--formed in no
contracted field of comparison--they can recommend as possessing
advantages and attractions equal to those held forth by most other
branches of human learning.
The next question was, in what way they should attempt to accomplish
this intention. If they had contented themselves with the first
suggestion that presented itself, and merely given a translation of
one of the many Introductions to Entomology extant in Latin, German
and French, adding only a few obvious improvements, their task would
have been very easy; but the slightest examination showed that,
in thus proceeding, they would have stopped far short of the goal
which they were desirous of reaching.--In the technical department
of the science they found much confusion, and numerous errors and
imperfections--the same name sometimes applied to parts anatomically
quite different, and different names to parts essentially the same,
while others of primary importance were without any name at all. And
with reference to the anatomy and physiology of insects, they could
no where meet with a full and accurate generalization of the various
facts connected with these subjects, scattered here and there in the
pages of the authors who have studied them.
They therefore resolved to begin, in some measure, _de novo_--to
institute a rigorous revision of the terms employed, making such
additions and improvements as might seem to be called for; and
to attempt a more complete and connected account of the existing
discoveries respecting the anatomical and physiological departments
of the science than has yet been given to the world:--and to these
two points their plan at the outset was limited.
It soon, however, occurred to them, that it would be of little use to
write a book which no one would peruse; and that in the present age
of love for light reading, there could not be much hope of leading
students to the dry abstractions of the science, unless they were
conducted through the attractive portal of the economy and natural
history of its objects. To this department, therefore, they resolved
to devote the first and most considerable portion of their intended
work, bringing into one point of view, under distinct heads, the most
interesting discoveries of Reaumur, De Geer, Bonnet, Lyonet, the
Hubers, &c., as well as their own individual observations, relative to
the noxious and beneficial properties of insects; their affection for
their young; their food, and modes of obtaining it; their habitations;
societies; &c. &c.: and they were the more induced to adopt this plan,
from the consideration, that, though many of the most striking of
these facts have before been presented to the English reader, a great
proportion are unknown to him; and that no similar generalization (if a
slight attempt towards it in Smellie's _Philosophy of Natural History_,
and a confessedly imperfect one in Latreille's _Histoire Naturelle des
Crustacés et des Insectes_ be excepted) has ever been attempted in any
language.--Thus the entire work would be strictly on the plan of the
_Philosophia Entomologica_ of Fabricius, only giving a much greater
extent to the _Œconomia_ and _Usus_, and adverting to these in the
first place instead of in the last.
The epistolary form was adopted, not certainly from any idea of their
style being particularly suited to a mode of writing so difficult
to keep from running into incongruities: but simply because this
form admitted of digressions and allusions called for in a popular
work, but which might have seemed misplaced in a stricter kind of
composition;--because it is better suited to convey those practical
directions, which in some branches of the pursuit the student
requires;--and lastly, because by this form, the objection against
speaking of the manners and economy of insects before entering upon
the definition of them, and explaining the terms of the science--a
retrograde course, which they have chosen from their desire to
present the most alluring side of the science first--is in great
measure, if not wholly, obviated.
Such is the plan which the authors chalked out for themselves--a
plan which in the execution they have found so much more extensive
than they calculated upon, that, could they have foreseen the piles
of volumes through which it has entailed upon them the labour of
wading, often to glean scarcely more than a single fact--the numerous
anatomical and technological investigations which it has called
for--and the long correspondence, almost as bulky as the entire
work, unavoidably rendered necessary by the distant residence of the
parties--they would have shrunk from an undertaking, of which the
profit, if by great chance there should be any, could not be expected
to repay even the cost of books required in it, and from which any
fame must necessarily be confined to a very limited circle. But
having entered upon it, they have persevered; and if they succeed in
their grand aim, that of making converts amongst their countrymen
to a study equally calculated for promoting the glory of God and
the delight and profit of man, they will not deem the labour of the
leisure hours of six years ill bestowed.
And here it may be proper to observe, that one of their first and
favourite objects has been to direct the attention of their readers
"from nature up to nature's God." For, when they reflected upon the
fatal use which has too often been made of Natural History, and
that from the very works and wonders of God, some philosophists, by
an unaccountable perversion of intellect, have attempted to derive
arguments either against his being and providence, or against the
Religion revealed in the Holy Scriptures, they conceived they might
render some service to the most important interests of mankind,
by showing how every department of the science they recommend
illustrates the great truths of Religion, and proves that the
doctrines of the Word of God, instead of being contradicted, are
triumphantly confirmed by his Works.
"To see all things in God" has been accounted one of the peculiar
privileges of a future state; and in this present life, "to see God
in all things," in the mirror of the creation to behold and adore the
reflected glory of the Creator, is no mean attainment; and it possesses
this advantage, that thus we sanctify our pursuits, and, instead of
loving the creatures for themselves, are led by the survey of them and
their instincts to the love of Him who made and endowed them.
Of their performance of the first part of their plan, in which
there is the least room for originality, it is only necessary for
the authors to say that they have done their best to make it as
comprehensive, as interesting, and as useful as possible: but it is
requisite to enter somewhat more fully into what has been attempted
in the anatomical, physiological, and technical parts of the work.
As far as respects the general physiology and _internal_ anatomy of
insects, they have done little more than bring together and combine the
observations of the naturalists who have attended to these branches
of the science: but the _external_ anatomy they have examined for
themselves through the whole class, and, they trust, not without some
new light being thrown upon the subject; particularly by pointing out
and giving names to many parts never before noticed.
In the _Terminology_, or what, to avoid the barbarism of a
word compounded of Latin and Greek, they would beg to call the
_Orismology_ of the science, they have endeavoured to introduce
throughout a greater degree of precision and concinnity--dividing
it into _general_ and _partial_ Orismology;--under the former
head defining such terms as relate to _Substance_, _Resistance_,
_Density_, _Proportion_, _Figure_, _Form_, _Superficies_, (under
which are introduced _Sculpture_, _Clothing_, _Colour_, &c.)
_Margin_, _Termination_, _Incision_, _Ramification_, _Division_,
_Direction_, _Situation_, _Connection_, _Arms_, &c.; and under the
latter those that relate to the body and its parts and members,
considered in its great subdivisions of _Head_, _Trunk_, and
_Abdomen_. In short, they may rest their claim of at least aiming
at considerable improvement in this department upon the great
number of new terms, and alterations of old ones, which they have
introduced--in external Anatomy alone falling little short of 150.
If it should be thought by any one that they have made too many
changes, they would remind him of the advice of Bergman to Morveau,
when reforming the nomenclature of Chemistry, the soundness of
which Dugald Stewart has recognised--"_Ne faites grace à aucune
dénomination impropre. Ceux qui savent déjà, entendront toujours;
ceux qui ne savent pas encore, entendront plutôt._"
Throughout the whole publication, wherever any fact of importance not
depending on their own authority is mentioned, a reference to the
source whence it has been derived is generally given; so that, if the
work should have no other value, it will possess that of saving much
trouble to future inquirers, by serving as an index to direct them in
their researches.
The authors are perfectly sensible that, notwithstanding all their
care and pains, many imperfections will unavoidably remain in their
work. There is no science to which the adage, _Dies diem docet_, is
more strikingly applicable than to Natural History. New discoveries
are daily made, and will be made it is probable to the end of time;
so that whoever flatters himself that he can produce a perfect work
in this department will be miserably disappointed. The utmost that
can reasonably be expected from naturalists is to keep pace with the
progress of knowledge, and this the authors have used their best
diligence to accomplish. Every new year since they took the subject in
hand up to the very time when the first sheets were sent to the press,
numerous corrections and alterations have suggested themselves; and
thus they are persuaded it would be were they to double the period of
delay prescribed by Horace. But Poetry and Natural History are on a
different footing; and though an author can plead little excuse for
giving his verses to the world while he sees it possible to polish
them to higher excellence, the naturalist, if he wishes to promote the
extension of his science, must be content to submit his performances to
the public disfigured by numerous imperfections.
In the introductory letter several of the advantages to be derived
from the study of Entomology are pointed out; but there is one,
which, though it could not well have been insisted upon in that
place, is too important to be passed over without notice--its value
in the education of youth.
All modern writers on this momentous subject unite in recommending
in this view, Natural History: and if "the quality of accurate
discrimination--the ready perception of resemblances amongst
diversities, and still more the quick and accurate perception of
diversity in the midst of resemblances--constitutes one of the most
important operations of the understanding; if it be indeed the
foundation of clear ideas, and the acquisition of whatever can be
truly called knowledge depends most materially on the possession of
it:"--if "the best logic be that which teaches us to suspend our
judgements;" and "the art of seeing, so useful, so universal, and yet
so uncommon, be one of the most valuable a man can possess,"--there
can be no doubt of the judiciousness of their advice. Now of all the
branches of Natural History, Entomology is unquestionably the best
fitted for thus disciplining the mind of youth; and simply from these
circumstances, that its objects have life, are gifted with surprising
instincts admirably calculated to attract youthful attention, and are
to be met with every where. It is not meant to undervalue the good
effects of the study of Botany or Mineralogy: but it is self-evident
that nothing inanimate can excite such interest in the mind of a
young person as beings endowed with vitality, exercising their powers
and faculties in so singular a way; which, as Reaumur observes, are
not only alive themselves, but confer animation upon the leaves,
fruits, and flowers that they inhabit; which every walk offers to
view; and on which new observations may be made without end.
Besides these advantages, no study affords a fairer opportunity of
leading the young mind by a natural and pleasing path to the great
truths of Religion, and of impressing it with the most lively ideas
of the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Creator.
Not that it is recommended to make children collectors of insects,
nor that young people, to the neglect of more important duties and
pursuits, should generally become professed Entomologists; but, if
the former be familiarized with their names, manners, and economy,
and the latter initiated into their classification, it will be an
excellent method of strengthening their habits of observation,
attention, and memory, equal perhaps, in this respect, to any
other mental exercise: and then, like Major Gyllenhal, who studied
Entomology under Thunberg about 1770, and after an interval of twenty
years devoted to the service of his country, resumed his favourite
pursuit with all the ardour of youth, and is at this time giving to
the world a description of the insects of Sweden invaluable for its
accuracy and completeness--they would be provided in their old age
with an object capable not merely of keeping off that _tædium vitæ_
so often inseparable from the relinquishment of active life, but of
supplying an unfailing fund of innocent amusement, an incentive to
exercise, and consequently no mean degree of health and enjoyment.
Some, who, with an ingenious author[2], regard as superfluous all
pains to show the utility of Natural History in reference to the
common purposes of life, asking "if it be not enough to open a source
of copious and cheap amusement, which tends to harmonize the mind,
and elevate it to worthy conceptions of nature and its Author? if a
greater blessing to a man can be offered than happiness at an easy
rate unalloyed by any debasing mixture?"--may think the earnestness
displayed on this head, and the length which has been gone in refuting
objections, needless. But Entomology is so peculiarly circumstanced,
that without removing these obstacles, there could be no hope of
winning votaries to the pursuit. Pliny felt the necessity of following
this course in the outset of his book which treats on insects, and a
similar one has been originally called for in introducing the study
even to those countries where the science is now most honoured. In
France, Reaumur, in each of the successive volumes of his immortal
work, found it essential to seize every opportunity of showing that
the study of insects is not a frivolous amusement, nor devoid of
utility, as his countrymen conceived it; and in Germany Sulzer had to
traverse the same road, telling us, in proof of the necessity of this
procedure, that on showing his works on insects with their plates to
two very sensible men, one commended him for employing his leisure
hours in preparing prints that would amuse children and keep them out
of mischief, and the other admitted that they might furnish very pretty
patterns for ladies' aprons! And though in this country things are not
now quite so bad as they were when Lady Glanville's will was attempted
to be set aside on the ground of lunacy, evinced by no other act than
her fondness for collecting insects, and Ray had to appear at Exeter
on the trial as a witness of her sanity[3], yet nothing less than line
upon line can be expected to eradicate the deep-rooted prejudices
which prevail on this subject. "Old impressions," as Reaumur has well
observed, "are with difficulty effaced. They are weakened, they appear
unjust even to those who feel them, at the moment they are attacked by
arguments which are unanswerable; but the next instant the proofs are
forgotten, and the perverse association resumes its empire."
The authors do not know that any curiosity will be excited to ascertain
what share has been contributed to the work by each of them; but if
there should, it is a curiosity they must be excused from gratifying.
United in the bonds of a friendship, which, though they have to thank
Entomology for giving birth to it, is founded upon a more solid
basis than mere community of scientific pursuits, they wish that,
whether blame or praise is the fate of their labours, it may be
jointly awarded. All that they think necessary to state is, that the
composition of each of the different departments of the work has been,
as nearly as possible, divided between them;--that though the letter,
or series of letters, on any particular subject, has been usually
undertaken by one, some of the facts and illustrations have generally
been supplied by the other, and there are a few to which they have
jointly contributed;--and that, throughout, the facts for which no
other authority is quoted, are to be considered as resting upon that
of one or other of the authors, but not always of him, who, from local
allusions, may be conceived the writer of the letter in which they are
introduced, as the matter furnished by each to the letters of the other
must necessarily be given in the person of the supposed writer.
* * * * *
In acknowledging their obligations to their friends, the first place
is due to SIMON WILKIN, Esq. of Costessey near Norwich, to whose
liberality they are indebted for almost all the plates which illustrate
and adorn the work; most of which have been drawn and engraved by his
artist Mr. JOHN CURTIS, whose intimate acquaintance with the subject
has enabled him to give to the figures an accuracy which they could
not have received from one less conversant with the science. Nor is
the reader less under obligation to Mr. Wilkin's liberality than the
authors, who, if the drawings, &c. had been to be paid for, must
necessarily have contented themselves with giving a much smaller number.
To ALEXANDER MACLEAY, Esq. they are under particular obligations, for
the warm interest he has all along taken in the work, the judicious
advice he has on many occasions given, the free access in which he
has indulged the authors to his unrivalled cabinet and well-stored
library, and the numerous other attentions and accommodations by
which he has materially assisted them in its progress.
To the other friends who have kindly aided them in this undertaking
in any way, they beg here to offer their best thanks.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] It is with no slight degree of satisfaction that the authors of
the present work observe the progress the science it recommends has
made in the public estimation since the first publication of this
volume: so that the complaint made in the above paragraph must now be
regarded as applicable only to a former state of the science.
[2] Dr. Aikin.
[3] See Harris's _Aurelian_ under _Papilio Cinxia_.
CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
Letter Page
I. Introductory, 1-20
II. Objections answered, 21-58
III. Metamorphoses of Insects, 59-79
IV. Direct Injuries caused by Insects, 80-144
V. Indirect Injuries caused by Insects.
1. Injuries to our living animal Property, 145-166
VI. Indirect Injuries continued.
2. Injuries to our living vegetable Property, 167-214
VII. The same subject continued.--The Ravages of Locusts, 215-226
VIII. Indirect Injuries concluded.
3. Injuries to our dead Property, whether
animal or vegetable, 227-249
IX. Indirect Benefits derived from Insects, 250-299
X. Direct Benefits derived from Insects, 300-338
XI. Affection of Insects for their Young, 339-381
XII. Food of Insects, 382-401
XIII. The same subject continued, 402-431
XIV. Habitations of Insects.
1. Of Solitary Insects, 432-472
XV. Habitations of Insects continued.
2. Of Insects in Society, 473-513
AN
INTRODUCTION
TO
ENTOMOLOGY.
LETTER I.
DEAR SIR,
I cannot wonder that an active mind like yours should experience
no small degree of tedium in a situation so far removed, as you
represent your new residence to be, from "the busy hum of men."
Nothing certainly can compensate for the want of agreeable society;
but since your case in this respect admits of no remedy but patience,
I am glad you are desirous of turning your attention to some pursuit
which may amuse you in the intervals of severer study, and in part
supply the void of which you complain. I am not a little flattered
that you wish to be informed which class in the three kingdoms of
nature is, in my opinion, most likely to answer your purpose; at the
same time intimating that you feel inclined to give the preference to
Entomology, provided some objections can be satisfactorily obviated,
which you have been accustomed to regard as urged with a considerable
semblance of reason against the cultivation of that science.
Mankind in general, not excepting even philosophers, are prone to
magnify, often beyond its just merit, the science or pursuit to which
they have addicted themselves, and to depreciate any that seems
to stand in competition with their favourite: like the redoubted
champions of romance, each thinks himself bound to take the field
against every one that will not subscribe to the peerless beauty
and accomplishments of his own Dulcinea. In such conflict for
pre-eminence I know no science that, in this country, has come off
worse than Entomology: her champions hitherto have been so few, and
their efforts so unavailing, that all her rival sisters have been
exalted above her: and I believe there is scarcely any branch of
Natural History that has had fewer British admirers. While Botany
boasts of myriads, she, though not her inferior either in beauty,
symmetry, or grace, has received the homage of a very slender train
indeed. Since therefore the merits of Entomology have been so little
acknowledged, you will not deem it invidious if I advocate the cause
of this distressed damsel, and endeavour to effect her restoration to
her just rights, privileges, and rank.
Things that are universally obvious and easy of examination, as they
are the first that fall under our notice, so are they also most
commonly those which we first feel an inclination to study; while, on
the contrary, things that must be sought for in order to be seen, and
which when sought for avoid the approach and inquiring eye of man,
are often the last to which he directs his attention. The vegetable
kingdom stands in the former predicament. Flora with a liberal hand
has scattered around us her charming productions; they every where
meet and allure us, enchanting us by their beauty, regaling us by
their fragrance, and interesting us as much by their subservience to
our luxuries and comfort, as to the necessary support and well-being
of our life. Beasts, birds, and fishes also, in some one or other
of these respects, attract our notice; but insects, unfortunate
insects, are so far from attracting us, that we are accustomed to
abhor them from our childhood. The first knowledge that we get of
them is as tormentors; they are usually pointed out to us by those
about us as ugly, filthy, and noxious creatures; and the whole insect
world, butterflies perhaps and some few others excepted, are devoted
by one universal ban to proscription and execration, as fit only to
be trodden under our feet and crushed: so that often, before we can
persuade ourselves to study them, we have to remove from our minds
prejudices deeply rooted and of long standing.
Another principal reason which has contributed to keep Entomology
in the back ground arises from the diminutive size of the objects
of which it treats. Being amongst the most minute of nature's
productions, they do not so readily catch the eye of the observer;
and when they do, mankind in general are so apt to estimate the worth
and importance of things by their bulk, that because we usually
measure them by the duodecimals of an inch instead of by the foot
or by the yard, insects are deemed too insignificant parts of the
creation, and of too little consequence to its general welfare, to
render them worthy of any serious attention or study. What small
foundation there is for such prejudices and misconception, I shall
endeavour to show in the course of our future correspondence; my
object now, as the champion and advocate of Entomology, is to point
out to you her comparative advantages, and to remove the veil which
has hitherto concealed those attractions, and that grace and beauty,
which entitle her to equal admiration at least with her sister
branches of Natural History.
In estimating the comparative value of the study of any department in
this branch of science, we ought to contrast it with others, as to
the rank its objects hold in the scale of being; the amusement and
instruction which the student may derive from it; and its utility to
society at large. With respect to public utility, the study of each
of the three kingdoms may perhaps be allowed to stand upon nearly an
equal footing; I shall not, therefore, enter upon that subject till
I come to consider the question _Cui bono?_ and to point out the
uses of Entomology, but confine myself now to the two first of these
circumstances.
As to rank, I must claim for the entomologist some degree of
precedence before the mineralogist and the botanist. The mineral
kingdom, whose objects are neither organized nor sentient, stands
certainly at the foot of the scale. Next above this is the
vegetable, whose lovely tribes, though not endued with sensation,
are organized. In the last and highest place ranks the animal world,
consisting of beings that are both organized and sentient. To this
scale of precedence the great modern luminary of Natural History,
notwithstanding that Botany was always his favourite pursuit, has
given his sanction, acknowledging in the preface to his _Fauna
Suecica_, that although the vegetable kingdom is nobler than the
mineral, yet the animal is more excellent than the vegetable. Now it
is an indisputable axiom, I should think, that the more exalted the
object the more excellent the study. By this observation, however,
I would by no means be thought to depreciate or discountenance the
study either of plants or minerals. All the works of our Creator are
great, and worthy of our attention and investigation, the lowest in
the scale as well as the highest, the most minute and feeble, as well
as those that exceed in magnitude and might. Nor ought those whose
inclination or genius leads them to one department, to say to those
who prefer another--"we have no need of you"--for each in his place,
by diffusing the knowledge of his works and adding to the stock of
previous discoveries, contributes to promote the glory of the Great
Architect of the universe and the good of his creatures.
It is not my wish to claim for my favourite science more than of
right belongs to her; therefore, when the question is concerning
rank, I must concede to the higher orders of animals, I mean Fishes,
Amphibia, Birds, and Quadrupeds, their due priority and precedence.
I shall only observe here, that there may exist circumstances which
countervail rank, and tend to render the study of a lower order of
beings more desirable than that of a higher: when, for instance,
the objects of the higher study are not to be come at or preserved
without great difficulty and expense; when they are few in number;
or, when they are already well ascertained and known: circumstances
which attach to the study of those animals that precede insects,
while they do not attach to the study of insects themselves.
With regard to the amusement and instruction of the student, much
doubtless may be derived from any one of the sciences alluded to:
but Entomology certainly is not behind any of her sisters in these
respects; and if you are fond of novelty, and anxious to make new
discoveries, she will open to you a more ample field for these than
either Botany or the higher branches of Zoology.
A new vertebrate animal or plant is seldom to be met with even by
those who have leisure and opportunity for extensive researches; but
if you collect insects, you will find, however limited the manor
upon which you can pursue your game, that your efforts are often
rewarded by the capture of some non-descript or rarity at present not
possessed by other entomologists, for I have seldom seen a cabinet
so meagre as not to possess some unique specimen. Nay, though you
may have searched every spot in your neighbourhood this year, turned
over every stone, shaken every bush or tree, and fished every pool,
you will not have exhausted its insect productions. Do the same
another and another, and new treasures will still continue to enrich
your cabinet. If you leave your own vicinity for an entomological
excursion, your prospects of success are still further increased;
and even if confined in bad weather to your inn, the windows of your
apartment, as I have often experienced, will add to your stock. If a
sudden shower obliges you at any time to seek shelter under a tree,
your attention will be attracted, and the tedium of your station
relieved, where the botanist could not hope to find even a new
lichen or moss, by the appearance of several insects, driven there
perhaps by the same cause as yourself, that you have not observed
before. Should you, as I trust you will, feel a desire to attend to
the manners and economy of insects, and become ambitious of making
discoveries in this part of entomological science, I can assure you,
from long experience, that you will here find an inexhaustible
fund of novelty. For more than twenty years my attention has been
directed to them, and during most of my summer walks my eyes have
been employed in observing their ways; yet I can say with truth, that
so far from having exhausted the subject, within the last six months
I have witnessed more interesting facts respecting their history than
in many preceding years. To follow only the insects that frequent
your own garden, from their first to their last state, and to trace
all their proceedings, would supply an interesting amusement for the
remainder of your life, and at its close you would leave much to be
done by your successor; for where we know thoroughly the history of
one insect, there are hundreds concerning which we have ascertained
little besides the bare fact of their existence.
But numerous other sources of pleasure and information will open
themselves to you, not inferior to what any other science can
furnish, when you enter more deeply into the study. Insects, indeed,
appear to have been nature's favourite productions, in which, to
manifest her power and skill, she has combined and concentrated
almost all that is either beautiful and graceful, interesting and
alluring, or curious and singular, in every other class and order
of her children. To these, her valued miniatures, she has given the
most delicate touch and highest finish of her pencil. Numbers she
has armed with glittering mail, which reflects a lustre like that of
burnished metals[4]; in others she lights up the dazzling radiance of
polished gems[5]. Some she has decked with what looks like liquid
drops, or plates of gold and silver[6]; or with scales or pile, which
mimic the colour and emit the ray of the same precious metals[7].
Some exhibit a rude exterior, like stones in their native state[8],
while others represent their smooth and shining face after they have
been submitted to the tool of the polisher: others, again, like so
many pygmy Atlases bearing on their backs a microcosm, by the rugged
and various elevations and depressions of their tuberculated crust,
present to the eye of the beholder no unapt imitation of the unequal
surface of the earth, now horrid with mis-shapen rocks, ridges, and
precipices--now swelling into hills and mountains, and now sinking
into valleys, glens, and caves[9]; while not a few are covered with
branching spines, which fancy may form into a forest of trees[10].
What numbers vie with the charming offspring of Flora in various
beauties! some in the delicacy and variety of their colours, colours
not like those of flowers evanescent and fugitive, but fixed and
durable, surviving their subject, and adorning it as much after
death as they did when it was alive; others, again, in the veining
and texture of their wings; and others in the rich cottony down that
clothes them. To such perfection, indeed, has nature in them carried
her mimetic art, that you would declare, upon beholding some insects,
that they had robbed the trees of their leaves to form for themselves
artificial wings, so exactly do they resemble them in their form,
substance, and vascular structure; some representing green leaves, and
others those that are dry and withered[11]. Nay, sometimes this mimicry
is so exquisite, that you would mistake the whole insect for a portion
of the branching spray of a tree[12]. No mean beauty in some plants
arises from the fluting and punctuation of their stems and leaves, and
a similar ornament conspicuously distinguishes numerous insects, which
also imitate with multiform variety, as may particularly be seen in the
caterpillars of many species of the butterfly tribe (_Papilionidæ_),
the spines and prickles which are given as a _Noli me tangere_ armour
to several vegetable productions.
In fishes the lucid scales of varied hue that cover and defend them
are universally admired, and esteemed their peculiar ornament; but
place a butterfly's wing under a microscope, that avenue to unseen
glories in new worlds, and you will discover that nature has endowed
the most numerous of the insect tribes with the same privilege,
multiplying in them the forms[13], and diversifying the colouring of
this kind of clothing beyond all parallel. The rich and velvet tints
of the plumage of birds are not superior to what the curious observer
may discover in a variety of _Lepidoptera_; and those many-coloured
eyes which deck so gloriously the peacock's tail are imitated with
success by one of our most common butterflies[14]. Feathers are
thought to be peculiar to birds; but insects often imitate them in
their antennæ[15], wings[16], and even sometimes in the covering of
their bodies[17].--We admire with reason the coats of quadrupeds,
whether their skins be covered with pile, or wool, or fur; yet are
not perhaps aware that a vast variety of insects are clothed with all
these kinds of hair, but infinitely finer and more silky in texture,
more brilliant and delicate in colour, and more variously shaded than
what any other animals can pretend to.
In variegation insects certainly exceed every other class of
animated beings. Nature, in her sportive mood, when painting
them, sometimes imitates the clouds of heaven; at others, the
meandering course of the rivers of the earth, or the undulations
of their waters: many are veined like beautiful marbles; others
have the semblance of a robe of the finest net-work thrown over
them; some she blazons with heraldic insignia, giving them
to bear in fields sable--azure--vert--gules--argent and or,
fesses--bars--bends--crosses--crescents--stars, and even animals[18].
On many, taking her rule and compasses, she draws with precision
mathematical figures; points, lines, angles, triangles[19], squares,
and circles. On others she portrays, with mystic hand, what seem
like hieroglyphic symbols, or inscribes them with the characters and
letters of various languages, often very correctly formed[20]; and,
what is more extraordinary, she has registered in others figures
which correspond with several dates of the Christian era[21].
Nor has nature been lavish only in the apparel and ornament of
these privileged tribes; in other respects she has been equally
unsparing of her favours. To some she has given fins like those
of fish, or a beak resembling that of birds[22]; to others horns,
nearly the counterparts of those of various quadrupeds. The bull[23],
the stag[24], the rhinoceros[25], and even the hitherto vainly
sought for unicorn[26], have in this respect many representatives
amongst insects. One is armed with tusks not unlike those of the
elephant[27]; another is bristled with spines, as the porcupine and
hedge-hog with quills[28]; a third is an armadillo in miniature;
the disproportioned hind legs of the kangaroo give a most grotesque
appearance to a fourth[29]; and the threatening head of the snake is
found in a fifth[30]. It would, however, be endless to produce all
the instances which occur of such imitations: and I shall only remark
that, generally speaking, these arms and instruments in structure and
finishing far exceed those which they resemble.
But further, insects not only mimic, in a manner infinitely various,
every thing in nature, they may also with very little violence
be regarded as symbolical of beings out of and above nature. The
butterfly, adorned with every beauty and every grace, borne by
radiant wings through the fields of ether, and extracting nectar
from every flower, gives us some idea of the blessed inhabitants of
happier worlds, of angels, and of the spirits of the just arrived at
their state of perfection. Again, other insects seem emblematical of
a different class of unearthly beings: when we behold some tremendous
for the numerous horns and spines projecting in horrid array from
their head or shoulders;--others for their threatening jaws of
fearful length, and armed with cruel fangs: when we survey the dismal
hue and demoniac air that distinguish others, the dens of darkness in
which they live, the impurity of their food, their predatory habits
and cruelty, the nets which they spread, and the pits which they sink
to entrap the unwary, we can scarcely help regarding them as aptly
symbolizing evil demons, the enemies of man, or of impure spirits for
their vices and crimes driven from the regions of light into darkness
and punishment[31].
The sight indeed of a well-stored cabinet of insects will bring before
every beholder not conversant with them, forms in endless variety,
which before he would not have thought it possible could exist in
nature, resembling nothing that the other departments of the animal
kingdom exhibit, and exceeding even the wildest fictions of the most
fertile imagination. Besides prototypes of beauty and symmetry, there
in miniature he will be amused to survey (for the most horrible
creatures when deprived of the power of injury become sources of
interest and objects of curiosity), to use the words of our great poet,
... all prodigious things
Abominable, unutterable, and worse
Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd,
Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimæras dire.
But the pleasures of a student of the science to which I am desirous
of introducing you, are far from being confined to such as result from
an examination of the exterior form and decorations of insects: for
could these, endless as they seem, be exhausted, or, wonderful as they
are, lose their interest, yet new sources, exuberant in amusement and
instruction, may be opened, which will furnish an almost infinite fund
for his curiosity to draw upon. The striking peculiarity and variety of
structure which they exhibit in their instruments of nutrition, motion,
and oviposition; in their organs of sensation, generation, and the
great fountains of vitality,--indeed their whole system, anatomically
considered, will open a world of wonders to you with which you will
not soon be satiated, and during your survey of which you will at
every step feel disposed to exclaim with the Roman naturalist--"In
these beings so minute, and as it were such non-entities, what wisdom
is displayed, what power, what unfathomable perfection[32]!" But even
this will not bring you to the end of your pleasures: you must leave
the dead to visit the living; you must behold insects when full of life
and activity, engaged in their several employments, practising their
various arts, pursuing their amours, and preparing habitations for
their progeny: you must notice the laying and kind of their eggs; their
wonderful metamorphoses; their instincts, whether they be solitary
or gregarious; and the other miracles of their history--all of which
will open to you a richer mine of amusement and instruction, I speak
it without hesitation, than any other department of Natural History
can furnish. A minute enumeration of these particulars would be here
misplaced, and only forestall what will be detailed more at large
hereafter; but a rapid glance at a very few of the most remarkable of
them, may serve as a stimulus to excite your curiosity, and induce you
to enter with greater eagerness into the wide field to which I shall
conduct you.
The lord of the creation plumes himself upon his powers of invention,
and is proud to enumerate the various useful arts and machines to
which they have given birth, not aware that "He who teacheth man
knowledge" has instructed these despised insects to anticipate him
in many of them. The builders of Babel doubtless thought their
invention of turning earth into artificial stone, a very happy
discovery[33]; yet a little bee[34] had practised this art, using
indeed a different process, on a small scale, and the white ants on
a large one, ever since the world began. Man thinks that he stands
unrivalled as an architect, and that his buildings are without a
parallel among the works of the inferior orders of animals. He would
be of a different opinion did he attend to the history of insects:
he would find that many of them have been architects from time
immemorial; that they have had their houses divided into various
apartments, and containing staircases, gigantic arches, domes,
colonnades, and the like; nay, that even tunnels are excavated by
them so immense, compared with their own size, as to be twelve times
bigger than that projected by Mr. Dodd to be carried under the Thames
at Gravesend[35]. The modern fine lady, who prides herself on the
lustre and beauty of the scarlet hangings which adorn the stately
walls of her drawing-room, or the carpets that cover its floor,
fancying that nothing so rich and splendid was ever seen before,
and pitying her vulgar ancestors, who were doomed to unsightly
white-wash and rushes, is ignorant all the while, that before she or
her ancestors were in existence, and even before the boasted Tyrian
dye was discovered, a little insect had known how to hang the walls
of its cell with tapestry of a scarlet more brilliant than any her
rooms can exhibit[36]; and that others daily weave silken carpets,
both in tissue and texture infinitely superior to those she so much
admires. No female ornament is more prized and costly than lace, the
invention and fabrication of which seems the exclusive claim of the
softer sex. But even here they have been anticipated by these little
industrious creatures, who often defend their helpless chrysalis, by
a most singular covering, and as beautiful as singular, of lace[37].
Other arts have been equally forestalled by these creatures. What
vast importance is attached to the invention of paper! For near six
thousand years one of our commonest insects has known how to make
and apply it to its purposes[38]; and even pasteboard, superior
in substance and polish to any we can produce, is manufactured by
another[39]. We imagine that nothing short of human intellect can
be equal to the construction of a diving-bell or an air-pump--yet a
spider is in the daily habit of using the one, and, what is more, one
exactly similar in principle to ours, but more ingeniously contrived;
by means of which she resides unwetted in the bosom of the water,
and procures the necessary supplies of air by a much more simple
process than our alternating buckets[40]--and the caterpillar of
a little moth knows how to imitate the other, producing a vacuum,
when necessary for its purposes, without any piston besides its own
body[41]. If we think with wonder of the populous cities which have
employed the united labours of man for many ages to bring them to
their full extent, what shall we say to the white ants, which require
only a few months to build a metropolis capable of containing an
infinitely greater number of inhabitants than even imperial Nineveh,
Babylon, Rome, or Pekin, in all their glory?
That insects should thus have forestalled us in our inventions
ought to urge us to pay a closer attention to them and their ways
than we have hitherto done, since it is not at all improbable that
the result would be many useful hints for the improvement of our
arts and manufactures, and perhaps for some beneficial discoveries.
The painter might thus probably be furnished with more brilliant
pigments, the dyer with more delicate tints, and the artisan with a
new and improved set of tools. In this last respect insects deserve
particular notice. All their operations are performed with admirable
precision and dexterity; and though they do not usually vary the
mode, yet that mode is always the best that can be conceived for
attaining the end in view. The instruments also with which they
are provided are no less wonderful and various than the operations
themselves. They have their saws, and files, and augers, and gimlets,
and knives, and lancets, and scissors, and forceps, with many other
similar implements; several of which act in more than one capacity,
and with a complex and alternate motion to which we have not yet
attained in the use of our tools. Nor is the fact so extraordinary as
it may seem at first, since "He who is wise in heart and wonderful in
working" is the inventor and fabricator of the apparatus of insects;
which may be considered as a set of miniature patterns drawn for our
use by a Divine hand. I shall hereafter give you a more detailed
account of some of the most striking of these instruments; and if
you study insects in this view, you will be well repaid for all the
labour and attention you bestow upon them.
But a more important species of instruction than any hitherto
enumerated may be derived from entomological pursuits. If we attend
to the history and manners of insects, they will furnish us with
many useful lessons in Ethics, and from them we may learn to improve
ourselves in various virtues. We have indeed the inspired authority
of the wisest of mankind for studying them in this view, since he
himself wrote a treatise upon them, and sends his sluggard to one for
a lesson of wisdom[42]. And if we value diligence and indefatigable
industry; judgement, prudence, and foresight; economy and frugality;
if we look upon modesty and diffidence as female ornaments; if we
revere parental affection--of all these, and many more virtues,
insects in their various instincts exhibit several striking examples,
as you will see in the course of our correspondence.
With respect to religious instruction insects are far from
unprofitable; indeed in this view Entomology seems to possess
peculiar advantages above every other branch of Natural History.
In the larger animals, though we admire the consummate art and
wisdom manifested in their structure, and adore that Almighty
power and goodness which by a wonderful machinery, kept in motion
by the constant action and re-action of the great positive and
negative powers of Nature, maintains in full force the circulations
necessary to life, perception, and enjoyment; yet as there seems
no disproportion between the objects and the different operations
that are going on in them, and we see that they afford sufficient
space for the play of their systems, we do not experience the same
sensations of wonder and astonishment that strike us when we behold
similar operations carried on without interruption in animals
scarcely visible to the naked eye. That creatures, which in the scale
of being are next to non-entities, should be elaborated with so much
art and contrivance, have such a number of parts both internal and
external, all so highly finished and each so nicely calculated to
answer its end; that they should include in this evanescent form
such a variety of organs of perception and instruments of motion,
exceeding in number and peculiarity of structure those of other
animals; that their nervous and respiratory systems should be so
complex, their secretory and digestive vessels so various and
singular, their parts of generation so clearly developed, and that
these minims of nature should be endowed with instincts in many cases
superior to all our boasted powers of intellect--truly these wonders
and miracles declare to every one who attends to the subject, "The
hand that made us is divine." We are the work of a Being infinite in
power, in wisdom, and in goodness.
But no religious doctrine is more strongly established by the
history of insects than that of a superintending Providence. That
of the innumerable species of these beings, many of them beyond
conception fragile and exposed to dangers and enemies without end,
no link should be lost from the chain, but all be maintained in
those relative proportions necessary for the general good of the
system; that if one species for a while preponderate, and instead
of preserving seem to destroy, yet counterchecks should at the same
time be provided to reduce it within its due limits; and further,
that the operations of insects should be so directed and overruled as
to effect the purposes for which they were created and never exceed
their commission: nothing can furnish a stronger proof than this,
that an unseen hand holds the reins, now permitting one to prevail
and now another, as shall best promote certain wise ends; and saying
to each, "Hitherto shalt thou come and no further."
So complex is this mundane system, and so incessant the conflict
between its component parts, an observation which holds good
particularly with regard to insects, that if instead of being under
such control it were left to the agency of blind chance, the whole
must inevitably soon be deranged and go to ruin. Insects, in truth,
are a book in which whoever reads under proper impressions cannot
avoid looking from the effect to the cause, and acknowledging his
eternal power and godhead thus wonderfully displayed and irrefragably
demonstrated: and whoever beholds these works with the eyes of the
body, must be blind indeed if he cannot, and perverse indeed if
he will not, with the eye of the soul behold in all his glory the
Almighty Workman, and feel disposed, with every power of his nature,
to praise and magnify
"Him first, Him last, Him midst, Him without end."
And now having led you to the vestibule of an august temple, which in
its inmost sanctuary exhibits enshrined in glory the symbols of the
Divine Presence, I should invite you to enter and give a tongue to
the Hallelujahs, which every creature in its place, by working his
will with all its faculties, pours forth to its great Creator: but I
must first endeavour to remove, as I trust I shall effectually, those
objections to the study of these interesting beings which I alluded
to in the outset of this letter, and this shall be the aim of my next
address.
I am, &c.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] The genera _Eumolpus_, _Lamprima_, _Rynchites_.
[5] _Cryptorhynchus corruscans._ N.B. Germar (_Insect. Spec. Nov._
i. 216--) regards this insect as synonymous with Illiger's _Eurhin
cupratus_, the description of which I had not seen when the Century
of Insects (_Linn. Trans._ xii.) was written, nor am I able now to
speak decisively on the subject.--K.
[6] _Helicopis Cupido_, _Argynnis Passifloræ_, _Lathonia_, &c.
[7] _Pepsis fuscipennis_, _argentata_, &c.
[8] The species of the genus _Trox_.
[9] Many of the _Scarabæidæ_, _Dynastidæ_, &c.
[10] Many caterpillars of _Butterflies_. Merian _Surinam_, t. xxii.
xxv. &c. and of _Sawflies_. Reaum. v. _t._ xii. _f._ 7, 8-14.
[11] Various species of the genera _Locusta_ and _Mantis_, F.
[12] Many species of _Phasma_.
[13] De Geer, I. _t._ 3. _f._ 1-34, &c.
[14] _Vanessa Io_.
[15] _Culex_, _Chironomus_, and other _Tipulariæ_.
[16] _Pterophorus._
[17] Hairs of many of the _Apidæ. Mon. Ap. Ang._ I. _t._ 10, ** d. 1.
_f._ 1. _b._
[18] _Ptinus imperialis_, L.
[19] _Trichius delta_, F.
[20] _Acrocinus longimanus_, F. _Vanessa, C. album, Acronycta_ ψ,
_Plusia_ γ.
[21] On the underside of the primary wings near the margin in
_Argynnis Aglaia_, _Lathonia_, _Selene_, &c.
[22] _Empis_, _Asilus_.
[23] _Onthophagus Taurus_, Curtis _Brit. Ent. t._ 52.
[24] _Lucanus Cervus._
[25] _Oryctes._
[26] _Dynastes Hercules._
[27] _Andrena spinigera. Melitta._ ** c. K.
[28] _Hispa._
[29] This insect belonged to the late Mr. Francillon, and was purchased
at his sale by Mr. MacLeay. Mr. W. S. MacLeay informs us that he has
given the name of _Eusceles_ to the group to which it belongs.
[30] _Raphidia ophiopsis._
[31] This idea seems to have been present to the mind of Linné and
Fabricius, when they gave to insects such names as _Belzebub_,
_Belial_, _Titan_, _Typhon_, _Nimrod_, _Geryon_, and the like.
[32] Plin. _Hist. Nat._ l. 11. c. 2.
[33] Gen. xi. 3.
[34] _Megachile muraria._
[35] The white ants.
[36] _Megachile Papaveris._
[37] The late ingenious Mr. Paul, of Harleston in Norfolk, under the
bark of a tree discovered a considerable portion of a fabric of this
kind, which from its amplitude must have been destined for some other
purpose.
[38] The common wasp.
[39] _Polistes nidulans._
[40] _Argyroneta aquatica._
[41] _Tinea serratella_, L.
[42] 1 Kings iv. 33. Prov. vi. 6-8.
LETTER II.
_OBJECTIONS ANSWERED._
In my last I gave you a general view of the science of Entomology,
and endeavoured to prove to you that it possesses attractions and
beauty sufficient to reward any student who may profess himself
its votary. I am now to consider it in a less alluring light, as a
pursuit attended by no small degree of obloquy, in consequence of
certain objections thought to be urged with great force against it.
To obviate these, and remove every scruple from your mind, shall be
the business of the present letter.
Two principal objections are usually alleged with great confidence
against the study and pursuit of insects. By some they are derided as
trifling and unimportant, and deemed an egregious waste of time and
talents; by others they are reprobated as unfeeling and cruel, and as
tending to harden the heart.
* * * * *
I. I shall begin with the first of these objections--that the
entomologist is a mere trifler. As for the silly outcry and abuse
of the ignorant vulgar, who are always ready to laugh at what they
do not understand, and because insects are minute objects conclude
that the study of them must be a childish pursuit, I shall not waste
words upon what I so cordially despise. But since even learned men
and philosophers, from a partial and prejudiced view of the subject,
having recourse to this common-place logic, are sometimes disposed
to regard all inquiry into these minutiæ of nature as useless and
idle, and the mark of a little mind; to remove such prejudice and
misconceptions I shall now dilate somewhat upon the subject of _Cui
bono?_
When we see many wise and learned men pay attention to any particular
department of science, we may naturally conclude that it is on
account of some profit and instruction which they foresee may be
derived from it; and therefore in defending Entomology I shall first
have recourse to the _Argumentum ad verecundiam_, and mention the
great names that have cultivated or recommended it.
We may begin the list with the first man that ever lived upon
the earth, for we are told that he gave a name to every living
creature[43], amongst which insects must be included; and to give an
appropriate name to an object necessarily requires some knowledge of
its distinguishing properties. Indeed one of the principal pleasures
and employments of the paradisiacal state was probably the study
of the various works of creation[44]. Before the fall the book of
nature was the Bible of man, in which he could read the perfections
and attributes of the invisible Godhead[45], and in it, as in a
mirror, behold an image of the things of the spiritual world. Moses
also appears to have been conversant with our little animals, and
to have studied them with some attention. This he has shown, not
only by being aware of the distinctions which separate the various
tribes of grasshoppers, crickets &c. (_Gryllus_, L.) into different
genera[46], but also by noticing the different direction of the
two anterior from the four posterior legs of insects; for, as he
speaks of them as going upon four legs[47], it is evident that he
considered the two anterior as arms. Solomon, the wisest of mankind,
made Natural History a peculiar object of study, and left treatises
behind him upon its various branches, in which _creeping things_ or
insects were not overlooked[48]; and a wiser than Solomon directs
our attention to natural productions, when he bids us _consider_ the
lilies of the field[49], teaching us that they are more worthy of our
notice than the most glorious works of man: he also not obscurely
intimates that insects are symbolical beings, when he speaks of
scorpions as synonymous with evil spirits[50]; thus giving into
our hands a clue for a more profitable mode of studying them, as
furnishing moral and spiritual instruction.
If to these scriptural authorities we add those of uninspired
writers, ancient and modern, the names of many worthies, celebrated
both for wisdom and virtue, may be produced. Aristotle among the
Greeks, and Pliny the elder among the Romans, may be denominated the
fathers of Natural History, as well as the greatest philosophers of
their day; yet both these made insects a principal object of their
attention: and in more recent times, if we look abroad, what names
greater than those of Redi, Malpighi, Vallisnieri, Swammerdam,
Leeuwenhoek, Reaumur, Linné, De Geer, Bonnet, and the Hubers? and
at home, what philosophers have done more honour to their country
and to human nature than Ray, Willughby, Lister, and Derham? Yet all
these made the study of insects one of their most favourite pursuits;
and, as if to prove that this study is not incompatible with the
highest flights of genius, we can add to the list the name of one of
the most sublime of our poets, Gray, who was very zealously devoted
to Entomology. As far therefore as names have weight, the above
enumeration seems sufficient to shelter the votaries of this pleasing
science from the charge of folly.
But we do not wish to rest our defence upon authorities alone; let
the voice of reason be heard, and our justification will be complete.
The entomologist, or, to speak more generally, the naturalist (for
on this question of _Cui bono?_ every student in all departments of
Natural History is concerned), if the following considerations be
allowed their due weight, may claim a much higher station amongst the
learned than has hitherto been conceded to him.
There are two principal avenues to knowledge--the study of words
and the study of things. Skill in the learned languages being often
necessary to enable us to acquire knowledge in the former way,
is usually considered as knowledge itself; so that no one asks
_Cui bono?_ when a person devotes himself to the study of verbal
criticism, and employs his time in correcting the errors that have
crept into the text of an ancient writer. Indeed it must be owned,
though perhaps too much stress is sometimes laid upon it, that this
is very useful to enable us to ascertain his true meaning. But after
all, words are but the arbitrary signs of ideas, and have no value
independent of those ideas, further than what arises from congruity
and harmony, the mind being dissatisfied when an idea is expressed
by inadequate words, and the ear offended when their collocation is
inharmonious. To account the mere knowledge of words, therefore, as
wisdom, is to mistake the cask for the wine, and the casket for the
gem. I say all this because knowledge of words is often extolled
beyond its just merits, and put for all wisdom; while knowledge of
things, especially of the productions of nature, is derided as if it
were mere folly. We should recollect that God hath condescended to
instruct us by both these ways, and therefore neither of them should
be depreciated. He hath set before us his word and his world. The
former is the great avenue to truth and knowledge by the study of
_words_, and, as being the immediate and authoritative revelation
of his will, is entitled to our _principal_ attention; the latter
leads us to the same conclusions, though less directly, by the study
of _things_, which stands next in rank to that of God's word, and
before that of any work of man. And whether we direct our eyes to the
planets rolling in their orbits, and endeavour to trace the laws by
which they are guided through the vast of space, whether we analyse
those powers and agents by which all the operations of nature are
performed, or whether we consider the various productions of this our
globe, from the mighty cedar to the microscopic mucor--from the giant
elephant to the invisible mite, still we are studying the works and
wonders of our God. The book, to whatever page we turn, is written
by the finger of him who created us; and in it, provided our minds
be rightly disposed, we may read his eternal verities. And the more
accurate and enlarged our knowledge of his works, the better shall
we be able to understand his word; and the more practised we are in
his word, the more readily shall we discern his truth in his works;
for, proceeding from the same great Author, they must, when rightly
interpreted, mutually explain and illustrate each other.
Who then shall dare maintain, unless he has the hardihood to deny
that God created them, that the study of insects and their ways is
trifling or unprofitable? Were they not arrayed in all their beauty,
and surrounded with all their wonders, and made so instrumental (as
I shall hereafter prove them to be) to our welfare, that we might
glorify and praise him for them? Why were insects made attractive, if
not, as Ray well expresses it, that they might ornament the universe
and be delightful objects of contemplation to man[51]? And is it not
clear, as Dr. Paley has observed, that the production of beauty was
as much in the Creator's mind in painting a butterfly or in studding
a beetle, as in giving symmetry to the human frame, or graceful
curves to its muscular covering[52]? And shall we think it beneath
us to study what he hath not thought it beneath him to adorn and
place on this great theatre of creation? Nay, shall we extol those
to the skies who bring together at a vast expense the most valuable
specimens of the arts, the paintings and statues of Italy and Greece,
all of which, however beautiful, as works of man, fall short of
perfection; and deride and upbraid those who collect, for the purpose
of admiring their beauty, the finished and perfect chef-d'œuvres of
a Divine artist? May we gaze with rapture unblamed upon an Apollo of
Belvedere, or Venus de Medicis, or upon the exquisite paintings of a
Raphael or a Titian, and yet when we behold with ecstasy sculptures
that are produced by the chisel of the Almighty, and the inimitable
tints laid on by his pencil, because an insect is the subject, be
exposed to jeers and ridicule?
But there is another reason, which in the present age renders the
study of Natural History an object of importance to every well-wisher
to the cause of Religion, who is desirous of exerting his faculties
in its defence. For as enthusiasm and false religion have endeavoured
to maintain their ground by a perversion of the text of _scripture_,
so also the patrons of infidelity and atheism have laboured hard to
establish their impiety by a perversion of the text of _nature_. To
refute the first of these adversaries of truth and sound religion,
it is necessary to be well acquainted with the _word_ of God; to
refute the second, requires an intimate knowledge of his _works_;
and no department can furnish him with more powerful arguments of
every kind than the world of insects--every one of which cries out
in an audible voice, There is a God--he is Almighty, all-wise,
all-good--his watchful providence is ever, and every where, at work
for the preservation of all things.
But since mankind in general are too apt to look chiefly at this
world, and to regard things as important or otherwise in proportion
as they are connected with sublunary interests, and promote our
present welfare, I shall proceed further to prove that the study of
insects may be productive of considerable utility, even in this view,
and may be regarded in some sort as a necessary or at least a very
useful concomitant of many arts and sciences.
The importance of insects to us both as sources of good or evil, I
shall endeavour to prove at large hereafter; but for the present,
taking this for granted, it necessarily follows that the study of
them must also be important. For when we suffer from them, if we do
not know the cause, how are we to apply a remedy that may diminish
or prevent their ravages? Ignorance in this respect often occasions
us to mistake our enemies for our friends, and our friends for our
enemies; so that when we think to do good we only do harm, destroying
the innocent and letting the guilty escape. Many such instances have
occurred. You know the orange-coloured fly of the wheat, and have
read the account of the damage done by this little insect to that
important grain; you are aware also that it is given in charge to
three little parasites to keep it within due limits; yet at first it
was the general opinion of unscientific men, that these destroyers
of our enemy were its parents, and the original source of all the
mischief[53]. Middleton, in his "_Agriculture of Middlesex_,"
speaking of the Plant-louse that is so injurious to the bean, tells
us that the lady-birds are supposed either to generate or to feed
upon them[54]. Had he been an entomologist, he would have been in no
doubt whether they were beneficial or injurious: on the contrary, he
would have recommended that they should be encouraged as friends
to man, since no insects are greater devourers of the Aphides. The
confounding of the apple Aphis (_A. lanigera, Myzoxyla?_[55]) that
has done such extensive injury to our orchards, with others, has led
to proceedings still more injurious. This is one of those species
from the skin of which transpires a white cottony secretion. Some
of the proprietors of orchards about Evesham, observing an insect
which secreted a similar substance upon the poplar, imagined that
from this tree the creature which they had found so noxious was
generated; and in consequence of this mistaken notion cut down all
their poplars[56]. The same indistinct ideas might have induced them
to fell all their larches and beeches, since they also are infested
by Aphides which transpire a similar substance. Had these persons
possessed any entomological knowledge, they would have examined and
compared the insects before they had formed their opinions, and being
convinced that the poplar and apple Aphis are distinct species, would
have saved their trees.
But could an entomological observer even ascertain the species of any
noxious insect, still in many cases, without further information, he
may fall short of his purpose of prevention. Thus we are told that
in Germany the gardeners and country people, with great industry,
gather whole baskets full of the caterpillar of the destructive
cabbage moth (_Mamestra Brassicæ_), and then bury them, which, as
Roesel well observes[57], is just as if we should endeavour to kill
a crab by covering it with water; for, many of them being full grown
and ready to pass into their next state, which they do underground,
instead of destroying them by this manœuvre, their appearing again
the following year in greater numbers is actually facilitated. Yet
this plan applied to our common cabbage caterpillar, which does
not go underground, would succeed. So that some knowledge of the
manners of an insect is often requisite to enable us to check its
ravages effectually. With respect to noxious caterpillars in general,
agriculturists and gardeners are not usually aware that the best mode
of preventing their attacks is to destroy the female fly before she
has laid her eggs, to do which the moth proceeding from each must be
first ascertained. But if their research were carried still further,
so as to enable them to distinguish the pupa and discover its haunts,
and it would not be at all difficult to detect that of the greatest
pest of our gardens, the cabbage butterfly, the work might be still
more effectually accomplished. Some larvæ are polyphagous, or feed
upon a variety of plants; amongst others that of the yellow-tail
moth (_Arctia chrysorhœa_); yet gardeners think they have done
enough if they destroy the web-like nests which so often deform our
fruit-trees, without suspecting that new armies of assailants will
wander from those on other plants which they have suffered to remain.
Thus will thousands be produced in the following season, which, had
they known how to distinguish them, might have been extirpated.
Another instance occurred to me last year, when walking with a
gentleman in his estate at a village in Yorkshire. Our attention was
attracted by several circular patches of dead grass, each having a
stick with rags suspended to it, placed in the centre. I at once
discerned that the larva of the cock-chafer had eaten the roots
of the grass, which being pulled up by the rooks that devour this
mischievous grub, these birds had been mistaken by the tenant for
the cause of the evil, and the rags were placed to frighten away his
best friends. On inquiry why he had set up these sticks, he replied,
"He could n't beer to see'd nasty craws pull up all'd gess, and sae
he'd set'd bairns to hing up some aud clouts to flay 'em away. Gin
he'd letten 'em alean they'd sean hev reated up all'd close." Nor
could I convince him by all that I could say, that the rooks were not
the cause of the evil. Even philosophers sometimes fall into gross
mistakes from this species of ignorance. Dr. Darwin has observed,
that destroying the beautiful but injurious woodpeckers is the only
alternative for preventing the injury they do to our forest-trees by
boring into them[58]; not being aware that they bore only those trees
which insects have previously attacked, and that they diminish very
considerably the number of such as are prejudicial to our forests.
From these facts it is sufficiently evident that entomological
knowledge is necessary both to prevent fatal mistakes, and to enable
us to check with effect the ravages of insects. But ignorance in
this respect is not only unfit to remedy the evil; on the contrary,
it may often be regarded as its cause. A large proportion of the
most noxious insects in every country are not indigenous, but have
been imported. It was thus that the moth (_Galleria Mellonella_) so
destructive in bee-hives, and the asparagus beetle (_Lema Asparagi_)
were made denizens of Sweden[59]. The insect that has destroyed all
the peach-trees in St. Helena was imported from the Cape: and at
home (not to mention bugs and cock-roaches) the great pest of our
orchards, before mentioned, the apple Aphis, there is good reason to
believe, was introduced with some foreign apple-trees. Now, extensive
as is our commerce, it is next to impossible, by any precautions, to
prevent the importation of these noxious agents. A cargo, or even a
sample, of peas from North America might present us with that ravager
of pulse, the pea-beetle (_Bruchus Pisi_); or the famed Hessian fly,
which some years ago caused such trepidation in our cabinet, might
be conveyed here in a ship-load of wheat. Leeuwenhoek's wolf (_Tinea
granella_) might visit us, in a similar conveyance, from Holland
or France. But though introduced, were Entomology a more general
pursuit, their presence would soon be detected, and the evil at once
nipt in the bud; whereas in a country where this science was not at
all or little cultivated, they would most probably have increased to
such an extent before they attracted notice, that every effort to
extirpate them would be ineffectual.
It is needless to insist upon the importance of the study of insects,
as calculated to throw light upon some of the obscurest points of
general physiology; nor would it be difficult, though the task might
be invidious, to point out how grossly incorrect and deficient are
many of the speculations of our most eminent philosophers, solely
from their ignorance of this important branch of Natural History. How
little qualified would that physiologist be to reason conclusively upon
the mysterious subject of generation, who should be ignorant of the
wonderful and unlooked-for fact, brought to light by the investigations
of an entomologist, that one sexual intercourse is sufficient to
fertilize the eggs of numerous generations of Aphides! And how
defective would be all our reasonings on the powers of nutrition and
secretion, had we yet to learn that in insects both are in action
unaccompanied by the circulating system and glands of larger animals!
In another point of view entomological information is very useful.
A great deal of unnecessary mischief is produced, and unnecessary
uneasiness occasioned, by what are called vulgar errors, and that
superstitious reliance upon charms, which prevents us from having
recourse to remedies that are really efficacious. Thus, for instance,
eating figs and sweet things has been supposed to generate lice[60].
Nine larvæ of the moth of the wild teasel inclosed in a reed or goose
quill have been reckoned a remedy for ague[61]. Matthiolus gravely
affirms that every oak-gall contains either a fly, a spider, or a
worm; and that the first foretells war, the second pestilence, and
the third famine[62]. In Sweden the peasants look upon the grub of
the cock-chafer as furnishing an unfailing prognostic whether the
ensuing winter will be mild or severe; if the animal have a blueish
hue (a circumstance which arises from its being replete with food)
they affirm it will be mild, but on the contrary if it be white the
weather will be severe: and they carry this so far as to foretell,
that if the anterior part be white and the posterior blue, the cold
will be most severe at the beginning of the winter. Hence they call
this grub _Bemärkelse-mask_, or prognostic worm[63]. A similar augury
as to the harvest is drawn by the Danish peasants from the mites
which infest the common dung beetle (_Geotrupes stercorarius_),
called in Danish _Skarnbosse_ or _Torbist_. If there are many of
these mites between the fore feet, they believe that there will be
an early harvest, but a late one if they abound between the hind
feet[64]. The appearance of the death's head hawk-moth (_Acherontia
Atropos_) has in some countries produced the most violent alarm and
trepidation amongst the people, who, because it emits a plaintive
sound, and is marked with what looks like a death's head upon its
back, regarded it as the messenger of pestilence and death[65]. We
learn from Linné that a similar superstition, built upon the black
hue and strange aspect of that beetle, prevails in Sweden with
respect to _Blaps mortisaga_, L.[66]; and in Barbadoes, according to
Hughes, the ignorant deem the appearance of a certain grasshopper in
their houses as a sure presage of illness to some of the family[67].
One would not think that the excrements of insects could be objects
of terror, yet so it has been. Many species of _Lepidoptera_,
when they emerge from the pupa state, discharge from their anus
a reddish fluid, which, in some instances, where their numbers
have been considerable, has produced the appearance of a shower of
blood; and by this natural fact, all those bloody showers, recorded
by historians as preternatural, and regarded where they happened
as fearful prognostics of impending evils, are stripped of their
terrors, and reduced to the class of events that happen in the
common course of nature. That insects are the cause of these showers
is no recent discovery; for Sleidan relates that in the year 1553
a vast multitude of butterflies swarmed through a great part of
Germany, and sprinkled plants, leaves, buildings, clothes and men,
with bloody drops, as if it had rained blood[68]. But the most
interesting account of an event of this kind is given by Reaumur,
from whom we learn that in the beginning of July 1608 the suburbs
of Aix, and a considerable extent of country round it, were covered
with what appeared to be a shower of blood. We may conceive the
amazement and stupor of the populace upon such a discovery, the alarm
of the citizens, the grave reasonings of the learned. All agreed
however in attributing this appearance to the powers of darkness,
and in regarding it as the prognostic and precursor of some direful
misfortune about to befall them. Fear and prejudice would have taken
deep root upon this occasion, and might have produced fatal effects
upon some weak minds, had not M. Peiresc, a celebrated philosopher of
that place, paid attention to insects. A chrysalis which he preserved
in his cabinet, let him into the secret of this mysterious shower.
Hearing a fluttering, which informed him 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 butterflies
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 phenomenon had caused[69].
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 effect 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[70].
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 hypochondriac persons, may cause the event that
is supposed to be prognosticated. 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 (_Anobium
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 dominion of superstitious fears,
and false notions, which having considerable influence on the conduct
of mankind are the cause of no small portion of evil.
But as we cannot well guard against the injuries produced by insects,
or remove the evil, whether real or arising from misconceptions
respecting them, which they occasion, unless we have some knowledge
of them; so neither without such knowledge can we apply them, when
beneficial, to our use. Now it is extremely probable that they might
be made vastly more subservient to our advantage and profit than at
present, if we were better acquainted with them. It is the remark of
an author, who himself is no entomologist: "We have not taken animals
enough into alliance with us. The more spiders there were in the
stable, the less would the horses suffer from the flies. The great
American fire-fly should be imported into Spain to catch mosquitos. In
hot countries a reward should be offered to the man who could discover
what insects feed upon fleas[71]." It would be worth our while to act
upon this hint, and a similar one of Dr. Darwin. Those insects might
be collected and preserved that are known to destroy the Aphides and
other injurious tribes; and we should thus be enabled to direct their
operations to any quarter where they would be most serviceable; but
this can never be done till experimental agriculturists and gardeners
are conversant with insects, and acquainted with their properties
and economy. How is it that the Great Being of beings preserves the
system which he has created from permanent injury, in consequence of
the too great redundancy of any individual species, but by employing
one creature to prey upon another, and so overruling and directing
the instincts of all, that they may operate most where they are most
wanted! We cannot better exercise the reasoning powers and faculties
with which he has endowed us, than by copying his example. We often
employ the larger animals to destroy each other, but the smaller,
especially insects, we have totally neglected. Some may think, perhaps,
that in aiming to do this we should be guilty of presumption, and of
attempting to take the government and direction of things out of the
hands of Providence: but this is a very weak argument, which might
with equal reason be adduced to prove that when rats and mice become
troublesome to us, we ought not to have recourse to dogs, ferrets, and
cats to exterminate them. When any species multiplies upon us, so as
to become noxious, we certainly have a just right to destroy it, and
what means can be more proper than those which Providence itself has
furnished? We can none of us go further or do more than the Divine Will
permits; and he will take care that our efforts shall not be injurious
to the general welfare, or effect the annihilation of any individual
species.
Again, with regard to insects that are employed in medicine or
the arts, if the apothecary cannot distinguish a Cantharis or
blister-beetle from a Carabus or Cetonia, both of which beetles I have
found mixed with the former, how can he know whether his druggist
furnishes him with a good or bad article? And the same observation
may with still greater force apply to the dyer in his purchase of
cochineal, since it is still more difficult to distinguish the wild
sort from the cultivated. There are, it is probable, many insects
that might be employed with advantage in both these departments: but
unless Entomology be more generally studied by scientific men, who are
the only persons likely to make discoveries of this kind, than it has
hitherto been, we must not hope to derive further profit from them.
It seems more particularly incumbent upon the professors of the divine
art of healing to become conversant with this as well as the other
branches of Natural History; for not only do they derive some of their
most useful drugs from insects, but many also of the diseases upon
which they are consulted, as we shall see hereafter, are occasioned by
them. For want of this kind of information medical men run the risk
of confounding diseases perfectly distinct, at least as to the animal
that causes them. It would be a most desirable thing to have professors
in each branch of Natural History in our universities, and to make
it indispensable, in order to the obtaining of any degree in Physic,
that the candidate should have attended these lectures. We may judge
from the good effects that the arts have derived from the present very
general attention to Chemistry, how beneficial would be the consequence
if Entomology were equally cultivated: and I shall conclude this
paragraph with what I think may be laid down as an incontrovertible
axiom:--That the profit we derive from the works of creation will
be in proportion to the accuracy of our knowledge of them and their
properties.
I trust I have now said enough to convince you and every thinking man
that the study of insects, so far from being vain, idle, trifling,
or unprofitable, may be attended with very important advantages to
mankind, and ought at least to be placed upon a level with many other
branches of science, against which such accusations are never alleged.
* * * * *
But I must not conceal from you that there are objectors who will
still return to the charge. They will say, "We admit that the
pursuits of the entomologist are important when he directs his views
to the destruction of noxious insects; the discovery of new ones
likely to prove beneficial to man; and to practical experiments
upon their medical and economical properties. But where are the
entomologists that in fact pursue this course? Do they not in reality
wholly disregard the economical department of their science, and
content themselves with making as large a collection of species as
possible; ascertaining the names of such as are already described;
describing new ones; and arranging the whole in their cabinets under
certain families and genera? And can a study with these sole ends in
view deserve a better epithet than trifling? Even if the entomologist
advance a step further, and invent a new system for the distribution
of all known insects, can his laborious undertaking be deemed any
other than busy idleness? What advantage does the world derive from
having names given to ten or twenty thousand insects, of which
numbers are not bigger than a pin's head, and of which probably not a
hundredth part will ever be of any use to mankind?"
Now in answer to this supposed objection, which I have stated as
forcibly as I am able, and which, as it may be, and often is, urged
against every branch of Natural History as at present studied, well
deserves a full consideration, I might in the first place deny that
those who have the highest claim to rank as entomologists do confine
their views to the systematic department of the science to the neglect
of economical observations; and in proof of my assertion, I might refer
abroad to a Linné, a Reaumur, a De Geer, a Huber, and various other
names of the highest reputation; and at home to a Ray, a Lister, a
Derham, a Marsham, a Curtis, a Clark, a Roxburgh, &c. But I do not wish
to conceal that though a large proportion of entomologists direct their
views much further than to the mere nomenclature of their science,
there exists a great number, probably the majority, to whom the
objection will strictly apply. Now I contend, and shall next endeavour
to prove, that entomologists of this description are devoting their
time to a most valuable end; and are conferring upon society a benefit
incalculably greater than that derived from the labours of many of
those who assume the privilege of despising their pursuit.
Even in favour of the mere butterfly-hunter--he who has no higher
aim than that of collecting a _picture_ of _Lepidoptera_, and is
attached to insects solely by their beauty or singularity, it would
not be difficult to say much. Can it be necessary to declaim on the
superiority of a people amongst whom intellectual pleasures, however
trifling, are preferred to mere animal gratifications? Is it a thing
to be lamented that some of the Spitalfields weavers occupy their
leisure hours in searching for the _Adonis_ butterfly (_Polyommatus
Adonis_), and others of the more splendid _Lepidoptera_[72], instead of
spending them in playing at skittles or in an alehouse? Or is there in
truth any thing more to be wished than that the cutlers of Sheffield
were accustomed thus to employ their _Saint Mondays_; and to recreate
themselves after a hard day's work, by breathing the pure air of their
surrounding hills, while in search of this "untaxed and undisputed
game[73];" and that more of the Norwich weavers were fond of devoting
their vacant time to plant-hunting, like Joseph Fox recorded by Sir
James Smith as the first raiser of a Lycopodium from seed[74]?
Still more easy is it to advocate the cause of another description
of entomologists--the general collectors. These, though not
concerning themselves with the system, contribute most essentially
to its advancement. We cannot expect that princes, noblemen, and
others of high rank or large fortune, who collect insects, should
be able or willing to give up the time necessary for studying them
systematically: but their museums being accessible to the learned
entomologist afford him the use of treasures which his own limited
funds or opportunities could never have brought together. As to
others of less consequence that content themselves with the title
of collectors, they also have their use. Having devoted themselves
to this one department, they become more expert at it, than the
philosopher who combines deep researches with the collection of
objects; and thus are many species brought together for the use of
the systematist, that would otherwise remain unknown.
But to proceed to the defence of systematic entomologists.--These
may be divided into two great classes: the first comprising those
who confine themselves to ascertaining the names of the insects they
collect; the second, those who, in addition, publish descriptions of
new species; new arrangements of intricate genera; or extrications of
entangled synonyms; and who, in other respects, actively contribute
to the perfection of the system.
Now with regard to the first class, setting aside what may be urged in
behalf of the study of insects considered as the work of the Creator,
it is easy to show that, even with such restricted views, their pursuit
is as commendable, and as useful both to themselves and the community,
as many of those on which we look with the greatest respect. To say the
least in their favour, they amuse themselves innocently, which is quite
as much as can be urged for persons who recreate their leisure hours
with music, painting, or desultory reading. They furnish themselves
with an unfailing provision of that "grand panacea for the _tædium
vitæ_"--employment--no unimportant acquisition, when even Gray was
forced to exclaim, with reference to the necessity of "always having
something going forward" towards the enjoyment of life, "Happy they
who can create a rose-tree or erect a honey-suckle; that can watch the
brood of a hen, or see a fleet of their own ducklings launch into
the water[75]!" and like the preceding class, they collect valuable
materials for the use of more active labourers, being thus at least
upon a par with the majority of book-collectors and antiquaries.
But this is the smallest half of the value of their pursuit. With
what view is the study of the mathematics so generally recommended?
Not certainly for any practical purpose--not to make the bulk of
those who attend to them, astronomers or engineers. But simply to
exercise and strengthen the intellect--to give the mind a habit
of attention and of investigation. Now for all these purposes, if
I do not go so far as to assert that the mere ascertaining of the
names of insects is equal to the study of the mathematics, I have
no hesitation in affirming that it is nearly as effectual; and
with respect to giving a habit of minute attention, superior. Such
is the intricacy of nature, such the imperfection of our present
arrangements, that the discovery of the name of almost any insect
is a problem, calling in all cases for acuteness and attention, and
in some for a balancing of evidence, a calculation of the chances
of error, as arduous as are required in a perplexed law-case; and a
process of ratiocination not less strict than that which satisfies
the mathematician. In proof of which assertion I need only refer
any competent judge to the elaborate disquisitions of Laspeyres,
called for by one work alone on the lepidopterous insects of a single
district--the _Wiener Verzeichniss_, which occupy above two hundred
octavo pages[76], and must have cost the learned author nearly as
much labour of mind as the _Ductor Dubitantium_ did Bishop Taylor.
Do not apprehend that this occasional perplexity is any deduction
from the attractions of the science: though in itself, in some
respects, an evil, it forms in fact to many minds one of the chief of
them. The pursuit of truth, in whatever path, affords pleasure: but
the interest would cease if she never gave us trouble in the chase.
Horace Walpole used to say that from a child he could never bring
himself to attend to any book that was not full of proper names; and
the satisfaction which he felt in dry investigations concerning noble
authors and obscure painters, is experienced by many an entomologist
who spends hours in disentangling the synonymy of a doubtful species.
Nor would it be easy to prove that the wordy researches of the one
are not to every practical purpose as valuable as those of the other.
We smile at the Frenchman told of by Menage, that was so enraptured
with the study of heraldry and genealogy, as to lament the hard case
of our forefather Adam, who could not possibly amuse himself with
such investigations[77]. But many an entomologist who has felt the
delicious sensation attendant upon the indisputable ascertainment of
an insect's name after a long search, will feel inclined to indulge
in similar grief for the unhappy lot of his successors, when all
shall be smooth sailing in the science.
But in behalf of those who are more eminently entitled to be called
entomologists--those who, not content with collecting and investigating
insects, occupy themselves in naming and describing such as have
been before unobserved; in instituting new genera or reforming the
old; and, to say all in one word, in perfecting the system of the
science, still higher claims can be urged. Suppose that at this
moment our dictionaries of the French and German languages were so
very defective, that we were unable by the use of them to profit from
the discoveries of their philosophers; the labours of a Michaelis
being a sealed book to our theologists, and those of La Place to our
astronomers. On this supposition, would not one of the most important
literary undertakings be the compilation of more perfect dictionaries,
and would not the humblest contributor to such an end be deemed most
meritoriously engaged? Now precisely what an accurate dictionary of a
particular language is towards enabling the world to participate in
the discoveries published in that language, is a system of Entomology
towards enabling mankind to derive advantage from any discoveries
relative to insects. A good system of insects containing all the known
species, arranged in appropriate genera, families, orders and classes,
is in fact a dictionary, putting it within our power to ascertain the
name of any given insect, and thus to learn what has been observed
respecting its properties and history as readily as we determine the
meaning of a new word in a lexicon. In order to impress upon you more
forcibly the absolute need of such a system, I must enter into still
further detail.
There is scarcely a country in which several thousand insects may
not be found. Now, without some scientific arrangement, how is the
observer of a new fact respecting any one of them, to point out to
distant countries and to posterity the particular insect he had in
view? Suppose an observer in England were to find a certain beetle
which he had demonstrated to be a specific for consumption; and
that it was necessary that this insect, which there was reason to
believe was common in every part of the world, should be administered
in a recent state. Would he not be anxious to proclaim the happy
discovery to sufferers in all quarters of the globe? As his remedy
would not admit of transportation, he would have no other means than
by describing it. Now the question is, whether, on the supposition
that no system of Entomology existed, he would be able to do this, so
as to be intelligible to a physician in North America, for instance,
eager to administer so precious a medicine to his expiring patient?
It would evidently be of no use to say that the specific was a
beetle: there are thousands of different beetles in North America.
Nor would size or colour be any better guide: there are hundreds of
beetles of the same size and the same colour. Even the plant on which
it fed would be no sufficient clue; for many insects, resembling each
other to an unpractised eye, feed on the same plant; and the same
insect in different countries feeds upon different plants. His only
resource, then, would be a coloured figure and full description of
it. But every entomologist knows that there exist insects perfectly
distinct, yet so nearly resembling each other, that no engraving,
nor any language other than that strictly scientific, can possibly
discriminate them. After all, therefore, the chances are, that our
discoverer's remedy, invaluable as it might be, must be confined to
his own immediate neighbourhood, or to those who came to receive
personal information from him. But with what ease is it made known
when a system of the science exists! If the insect be already
described, he has but to mention its generic and trivial names, and
by aid of two words alone, every entomologist, though in the most
distant region--whether a Swede, a German, or a Frenchman; whether a
native of Europe, of Asia, of America, or of Africa, knows instantly
the very species that is meant, and can that moment ascertain whether
it be within his reach. If the species be new and undescribed, it
is only necessary to indicate the genus to which it belongs, the
species to which it is most nearly allied, and to describe it in
scientific terms, which may be done in few words, and it can at once
be recognised by every one acquainted with the science.
You will think it hardly credible that there should be so much
difficulty in describing an insect intelligibly without the aid of
system; but an _argumentum ad hominem_, supported by some other
facts, will, I conjecture, render this matter more comprehensible.
You have doubtless, like every one else, in the showery days of
summer, felt no little rage at the _flies_, which at such times take
the liberty of biting our legs, and contrive to make a comfortable
meal through the interstices of their silken or cotton coverings. Did
it, I pray, ever enter into your conception, that these blood-thirsty
tormentors are a different species from those flies which you are
wont to see extending the lips of their little proboscis to a piece
of sugar or a drop of wine? I dare say not. But the next time you
have sacrificed one of the former to your just vengeance, catch one
of the latter and compare them. I question if, after the narrowest
comparison, you will not still venture a wager that they are the very
same species. Yet you would most certainly lose your bet. They are
not even of the same genus--one belonging to the genus Musca (_M.
domestica_), and the other to the genus Stomoxys (_S. calcitrans_);
and on a second examination you will find that, however alike in
most respects, they differ widely in the shape of their proboscis;
that of the Stomoxys being a horny sharp-pointed weapon, capable
of piercing the flesh, while the soft blunt organ of the Musca is
perfectly incompetent to any such operation. In future, while you
no longer load the whole race of the house-fly with the execrations
which properly belong to a quite different tribe, you will cease
being surprised that an ordinary description should be insufficient
to discriminate an insect. It is to this insufficiency that we must
attribute our ignorance of so many of the insects mentioned by
the older naturalists, previously to the systematic improvements
of the immortal Linné: and to the same cause we must refer the
impossibility of determining what species are alluded to in the
accounts of many modern travellers and agriculturists who have been
ignorant of Entomology as a science. Instances without number of this
impossibility might be adduced, but I shall confine myself to two.
One of the greatest pests of Surinam and other low regions in South
America, is the insect called in the West Indies, where it is also
troublesome, the chigoe (_Pulex penetrans_), a minute species, to the
attacks of which I shall again have occasion to advert. This insect
is mentioned by almost all the writers on the countries where it is
found. Not less than eight or ten of them have endeavoured to give a
full description of it, and some of them have even figured it; and
yet, strange to say, it was not certainly known whether it was a flea
(_Pulex_, L.) or a mite (_Acarus_, L.), till a competent naturalist
undertook to investigate its history, and in a short paper in the
_Swedish Transactions_[78] proved that Linné was not mistaken in
referring it to the former tribe.
The second instance of the insufficiency of popular description is even
more extraordinary. In 1788 an alarm was excited in this country by the
probability of importing, in cargoes of wheat from North America, the
insect known by the name of the Hessian fly, whose dreadful ravages
will be adverted to hereafter. However the insect tribes are in
general despised, they had on that occasion ample revenge. The privy
council sat day after day anxiously debating what measures should be
adopted to ward off the danger of a calamity, more to be dreaded, as
they well knew, than the plague or pestilence. Expresses were sent
off in all directions to the officers of the customs at the different
outports respecting the examination of cargoes--dispatches written
to the ambassadors in France, Austria, Prussia, and America, to gain
that information of the want of which they were now so sensible: and
so important was the business deemed, that the minutes of council and
the documents collected from all quarters fill upwards of two hundred
octavo pages[79]. Fortunately England contained one illustrious
naturalist, the most authentic source of information on all subjects
which connect Natural History with Agriculture and the Arts, to whom
the privy council had the wisdom to apply; and it was by Sir Joseph
Banks's entomological knowledge, and through his suggestions, that
they were at length enabled to form some kind of judgement on the
subject. This judgement was after all, however, very imperfect. As Sir
Joseph Banks had never seen the Hessian fly, nor was it described in
any entomological system, he called for facts respecting its nature,
propagation, and economy, which could be had only from America. These
were obtained as speedily as possible, and consist of numerous letters
from individuals; essays from magazines; the reports of the British
minister there, &c. &c. One would have supposed that from these
statements, many of them drawn up by farmers who had lost entire crops
by the insect, which they profess to have examined in every stage,
the requisite information might have been acquired. So far however
was this from being the case, that many of the writers seem ignorant
whether the insect be a moth, a fly, or what they term a bug. And
though from the concurrent testimony of several its being a two-winged
fly seemed pretty accurately ascertained, no intelligible description
is given, from which any naturalist can infer to what genus it
belongs, or whether it is a known species. With regard to the history
of its propagation and economy the statements were so various and
contradictory, that though he had such a mass of materials before him,
Sir Joseph Banks was unable to reach any satisfactory conclusion.
Nothing can more incontrovertibly demonstrate the importance of
studying Entomology as a science than this fact. Those observations,
to which thousands of unscientific sufferers proved themselves
incompetent, would have been readily made by one entomologist well
versed in his science. He would at once have determined the order
and genus of the insect, and whether it was a known or new species;
and in a twelvemonth at furthest he would have ascertained in what
manner it made its attacks, and whether it were possible that it might
be transmitted along with grain into a foreign country; and on these
solid data he could have satisfactorily pointed out the best mode of
eradicating the pest, or preventing the extension of its ravages.
But it is not merely in travellers and popular observers that the
want of a systematic knowledge of Entomology is so deplorable.
A great portion of the labours of the profoundest naturalists
has been from a similar cause lost to the world. Many of the
insects concerning which Reaumur and Bonnet have recorded the most
interesting circumstances, cannot, from their neglect of system, be
at this day ascertained[80]. The former, as Beckmann[81] states on
the authority of his letters, was before his death sensible of his
great error in this respect: but Bonnet, with singular inconsistency,
constantly maintained the inutility of system, even on an occasion
when, from his ignorance of it, Sir James Smith, speaking of his
experiments on the barberry, found it quite impossible to make him
comprehend what plant he referred to[82].
So great is the importance of a systematic arrangement of insects. Yet
no such arrangement has hitherto been completed. Various fragments
towards it indeed exist. But the work itself is in the state of a
dictionary wanting a considerable proportion of the words of the
language it professes to explain; and placing those, which it does
contain, in an order often so arbitrary and defective, that it is
difficult to discover even the page containing the word you are in
search of. Can it be denied, then, that they are most meritoriously
employed who devote themselves to the removal of these defects--to the
perfecting of the system--and to clearing the path of future economical
or physiological observers from the obstructions which now beset it?
And who that knows the vast extent of the science, and how impossible
it is that a divided attention can embrace the whole, will contend that
it is not desirable that some labourers in the field of literature
should devote themselves entirely and exclusively to this object?
Who that is aware of the importance of the comprehensive views of a
Fabricius, an Illiger, or a Latreille, and the infinite saving of time
of which their inquiries will be productive to their followers, will
dispute their claim to rank amongst the most honourable in science?
II. No objection, I think, now remains against addicting ourselves to
entomological pursuits, but that which seems to have the most weight
with you, and which indeed is calculated to make the deepest impression
upon the best minds--I mean the charge of inhumanity and cruelty.
That the science of Entomology cannot be properly cultivated without
the death of its objects, and that this is not to be effected without
putting them to some pain, must be allowed; but that this substantiates
the charge of cruelty against us I altogether deny. Cruelty is an
unnecessary infliction of suffering, when a person is fond of torturing
or destroying God's creatures from mere wantonness, with no useful end
in view; or when, if their death be useful and lawful, he has recourse
to circuitous modes of killing them, where direct ones would answer
equally well. This is cruelty, and this with you I abominate; but not
the infliction of death when a just occasion calls for it.
They who see no cruelty in the sports of the field, as they are
called, can never, of course, consistently allege such a charge
against the entomologist; the tortures of wounded birds, of fish that
swallow the hook and break the line, or of the hunted hare, being,
beyond comparison, greater than those of insects destroyed in the
usual mode. With respect to utility, the sportsman, who, though he
adds indeed to the general stock of food, makes amusement his primary
object, must surely yield the palm to the Entomologist, who adds to
the general stock of mental food, often supplies hints for useful
improvements in the arts and sciences, and the objects of whose
pursuit, unlike those of the former, are preserved and may be applied
to use for many years.
But in the view even of those few who think inhumanity chargeable
upon the sportsman, it will be easy to place considerations which may
rescue the entomologist from such reproof. It is well known that, in
proportion as we descend in the scale of being, the sensibility of the
objects that constitute it diminishes. The tortoise walks about after
losing its head; and the polypus, so far from being injured by the
application of the knife, thereby acquires an extension of existence.
Insensibility almost equally great may be found in the insect world.
This, indeed, might be inferred _à priori_, since Providence seems
to have been more prodigal of insect life than of that of any other
order of creatures, animalcula perhaps alone excepted. No part of the
creation is exposed to the attack of so many enemies, or subject to so
many disasters; so that the few individuals of each kind which enrich
the valued museum of the entomologist, many of which are dearer to him
than gold or gems, are snatched from the ravenous maw of some bird or
fish or rapacious insect; would have been driven by the winds into the
waters and drowned; or trodden underfoot by man or beast,--for it is
not easy, in some parts of the year, to set foot to the ground without
crushing these minute animals; and thus also, instead of being buried
in oblivion, they have a kind of immortality conferred upon them.
Can it be believed that the beneficent Creator, whose tender mercies
are over all his works, would expose these helpless beings to such
innumerable enemies and injuries, were they endued with the same sense
of pain and irritability of nerve with the higher orders of animals?
But this inference is reduced to certainty, when we attend to the
facts which insects every day present to us, proving that the very
converse of our great poet's conclusion, as usually interpreted,
... The poor beetle that we tread upon,
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies,
must be regarded as nearer the truth[83]. Not to mention the peculiar
organization of insects, which strongly favours the idea I am
inculcating, but which will be considered more properly in another
place, their sang-froid upon the loss of their limbs, even those that
we account most necessary to life, irrefragably proves that the pain
they suffer cannot be very acute. Had a giant lost an arm or a leg,
or were a sword or spear run through his body, he would feel no great
inclination for running about, dancing, or eating. Yet a crane-fly
(_Tipula_) will leave half its legs in the hands of an unlucky boy
who has endeavoured to catch it, and will fly here and there with
as much agility and unconcern as if nothing had happened to it; and
an insect impaled upon a pin will often devour its prey with as
much avidity as when at liberty. Were a giant eviscerated, his body
divided in the middle, or his head cut off, it would be all over with
him; he would move no more; he would be dead to the calls of hunger;
or the emotions of fear, anger, or love. Not so our insects. I have
seen the common cock-chafer walk about with apparent indifference
after some bird had nearly emptied its body of its viscera: a
humble-bee will eat honey with greediness though deprived of its
abdomen; and I myself lately saw an ant, which had been brought out
of the nest by its comrades, walk when deprived of its head. The
head of a wasp will attempt to bite after it is separated from the
rest of the body; and the abdomen under similar circumstances, if
the finger be moved to it, will attempt to sting. And, what is more
extraordinary, the headless trunk of a male Mantis has been known to
unite itself to the other sex[84]. These facts, out of hundreds that
might be adduced, are surely sufficient to prove that insects do not
experience the same acute sensations of pain with the higher orders
of animals, which Providence has endowed with more ample means of
avoiding them; and since they were to be exposed so universally to
attack and injury, this is a most merciful provision in their favour;
for, were it otherwise, considering the wounds, and dismemberments,
and lingering deaths that insects often suffer, what a vast increase
would there be of the general sum of pain and misery! You will now, I
think, allow that the most humane person need not hesitate a moment,
whether he shall devote himself to the study of Entomology, on
account of any cruelty attached to the pursuit.
But if some morbid sentimentalist should still exclaim, "Oh! but I
cannot persuade myself even for scientific purposes to inflict the
slightest degree of pain upon the most insensible of creatures--"
Pray, sir or madam, I would ask, should your green-house be infested
by Aphides, or your grapery by the semianimate Coccus, would this
extreme of tenderness induce you to restrict your gardener from
destroying them? Are you willing to deny yourself these unnecessary
gratifications, and to resign your favourite flowers and fruit at the
call of your fine feelings? Or will you give up the shrimps, which
by their relish enable you to play a better part with your bread and
butter at breakfast, and thus, instead of adding to it, contribute
to diminish the quantity of food? If not, I shall only desire you
to recollect that, for a mere personal indulgence, you cause the
death of an infinitely greater number of animals, than all the
entomologists in the world destroy for the promotion of science.
To these considerations, which I have no doubt you will think
conclusive as to the unreasonableness and inconsistency of the
objections made against the study of Entomology on the score of
cruelty, I shall only add that I do not intend them as any apology
for other than the most speedy and least painful modes of destroying
insects; and these will be pointed out to you in a subsequent letter.
Every degree of unnecessary pain becomes cruelty, which I need not
assure you I abhor; and from my own observations, however ruthlessly
the entomologist may seem to devote the few specimens wanted for
scientific purposes to destruction, no one in ordinary circumstances
is less prodigal of insect life. For my own part, I question whether
the drowning individuals, which I have saved from destruction, would
not far outnumber all that I ever sacrificed to science.
My next letter will be devoted to the _metamorphoses_ of insects, a
subject on which some previous explanation is necessary to enable
you to understand those distinctions between their different
states, which will be perpetually alluded to in the course of our
correspondence: and having thus cleared the way, I shall afterwards
proceed to the consideration of the _injuries_ and _benefits_ of
which insects are the cause.
I am, &c.
FOOTNOTES:
[43] Gen. ii. 19.
[44] Linn. _Fn. Suec._ Præf.
[45] Rom. i. 19, 20.
[46] Levit. xi. 21, 22. Lichtenstein in _Linn. Trans._ iv. 51, 52.
[47] Levit. xi. 20. conf. Bochart. _Hierozoic._ ii. l. 4. c. 9. 497-8.
[48] 1 Kings iv. 33.
[49] Luke xii. 27.
[50] Ibid. x. 19, 20.
[51] "Quæri fortasse à nonnullis potest, Quis Papilionum usus sit?
Respondeo, Ad ornatum Universi, et ut hominibus spectaculo sint: ad
rura illustranda velut tot bracteæ inservientes. Quis enim eximiam
earum pulchritudinem et varietatem contemplans mira voluptate non
afficiatur? Quis tot colorum et schematum elegantias naturæ ipsius
ingenio excogitatas et artifici penicillo depictas curiosis oculis
intuens, divinæ artis vestigia eis impressa non agnoscat et miretur?"
Rai. _Hist. Ins._ 109.
[52] _Nat. Theol._ 213.
[53] Kirby, in _Linn. Trans._ iv. 232. 235. See also a letter signed
C. in the _Gent. Mag._ for August 1795. This little insect produces
no _galls_ like the other species of the genus (Latr. Gen. _Crust.
et Ins._ iv. 253. Meig. _Dipt._ i. 94.), yet it corresponds with the
characters of _Cecidomyia_ laid down both by Latreille and Meigen.
[54] P. 192.
[55] See Latr. _Familles Naturelles du Règne Animal_, 429.
[56] Collet, in _Month. Mag._ xxxii. 320.
[57] Roesel I. iv. 170.
[58] _Phytologia_, 518.
[59] _Fn. Suec._ 567, 1383.
[60] Amoreux, 276.
[61] Rai. _Cat. Cant._ 45. _Hist. Ins._ 341.
[62] _Comment. in Dioscor._ I. 1. c. 23. 214. Lesser. _L._ ii. 280.
[63] De Geer, iv. 275-6.
[64] Detharding _de Insectis Coleopteris Danicis_, 9.
[65] Reaum. ii. 289. This insect and its caterpillar is finely figured
in Mr. Curtis's elegant and scientific _British Entomology_, t. 147.
[66] _Faun. Suec._ 822.
[67] _Nat. Hist. of Barbad._ 85.
[68] Quoted in Mouffet, 107.
[69] Reaum. i. 667.
[70] Reaum. vi. 99-100. Kirby _Mon. Ap. Ang._ i. 157-8.
[71] Southey's _Madoc_, 4to, Notes, 519.
[72] Haworth _Lepid. Brit._ 44. 57.
[73]
Oft have I smiled the happy pride to see
Of humble tradesmen in their evening glee,
When of some pleasing fancied good possest,
Each grew alert, was busy and was blest:
Whether the call-bird yield the hour's delight,
Or magnified in microscope the mite;
Or whether tumblers, croppers, carriers seize
The gentle mind; they rule it and they please.
There is my friend the weaver; strong desires
Reign in his breast; 'tis beauty he admires:
See to the shady grove he wings his way,
And feels in hope the rapture of the day--
Eager he looks, and soon to glad his eyes,
From the sweet bower by nature form'd arise
Bright troops of virgin moths, and fresh born butterflies.
* * * * *
He fears no bailiff's wrath, no baron's blame,
His is untax'd and undisputed game.
Crabbe's _Borough_, p. 110.
[74] _Linn. Trans._ ii. 315.
[75] Letter to Dr. Wharton. Mason's _Life of Gray_, p. 28.
[76] Illig. _Mag._ ii. 33. iv. 3.
[77] Andrews's _Anecdotes_, 152.
[78] Swartz in _Kongl. Vet. Ac. Nya. band._ ix. 40. PLATE XXIII. FIG.
10.
[79] Young's _Annals of Agriculture_, xi. 406.
[80] No one knew Reaumur's _Abeille Tapissiere_ until Latreille,
happily combining system with attention to the economy of insects,
proved it to be a new species--his _Megachile Papaveris_.--_Hist. de
Fourmis_, 297.
[81] _Bibliothek._ vii. 310.
[82] _Tour on the Continent_, iii. 150.
[83] Shakespear's intention however in this passage was evidently
not, as is often supposed, to excite compassion for the insect, but
to prove that
The sense of Death is most in apprehension,
the actual pang being trifling. _Measure for Measure_, Act iii. Scene 1.
[84] Dr. Smith's _Tour_, i. 162. _Journ. de Phys._ xxv. 336.
LETTER III.
_METAMORPHOSES OF INSECTS._
Were a naturalist to announce to the world the discovery of an animal
which for the first five years of its life existed in the form of a
serpent; which then penetrating into the earth, and weaving a shroud
of pure silk of the finest texture, contracted itself within this
covering into a body without external mouth or limbs, and resembling
more than any thing else an Egyptian mummy; and which, lastly, after
remaining in this state without food and without motion for three
years longer, should at the end of that period burst its silken
cerements, struggle through its earthy covering, and start into day a
winged bird,--what think you would be the sensation excited by this
strange piece of intelligence? After the first doubts of its truth
were dispelled, what astonishment would succeed! Amongst the learned,
what surmises!--what investigations! Amongst the vulgar, what eager
curiosity and amazement! All would be interested in the history of
such an unheard-of phenomenon; even the most torpid would flock to
the sight of such a prodigy.
But you ask, "To what do all these improbable suppositions tend?"
Simply to rouse your attention to the _metamorphoses_ of the insect
world, almost as strange and surprising, to which I am now about to
direct your view,--miracles, which, though scarcely surpassed in
singularity by all that poets have feigned, and though actually
wrought every day beneath our eyes, are, because of their commonness,
and the minuteness of the objects, unheeded alike by the ignorant and
the learned.
That butterfly which amuses you with its aërial excursions, one while
extracting nectar from the tube of the honeysuckle, and then, the
very image of fickleness, flying to a rose as if to contrast the hue
of its wings with that of the flower on which it reposes--did not
come into the world as you now behold it. At its first exclusion from
the egg, and for some months of its existence afterwards, it was a
worm-like caterpillar, crawling upon sixteen short legs, greedily
devouring leaves with two jaws, and seeing by means of twelve eyes so
minute as to be nearly imperceptible without the aid of a microscope.
You now view it furnished with wings capable of rapid and extensive
flights: of its sixteen feet ten have disappeared, and the remaining
six are in most respects wholly unlike those to which they have
succeeded; its jaws have vanished, and are replaced by a curled-up
proboscis suited only for sipping liquid sweets; the form of its head
is entirely changed,--two long horns project from its upper surface;
and, instead of twelve invisible eyes, you behold two, very large,
and composed of at least twenty thousand convex lenses, each supposed
to be a distinct and effective eye!
Were you to push your examination further, and by dissection to
compare the internal conformation of the caterpillar with that of the
butterfly, you would witness changes even more extraordinary. In the
former you would find some thousands of muscles, which in the latter
are replaced by others of a form and structure entirely different.
Nearly the whole body of the caterpillar is occupied by a capacious
stomach. In the butterfly this has become converted into an almost
imperceptible thread-like viscus; and the abdomen is now filled by
two large packets of eggs, or other organs not visible in the first
state. In the former, two spirally-convoluted tubes were filled with
a silky gum; in the latter, both tubes and silk have almost totally
vanished; and changes equally great have taken place in the economy
and structure of the nerves and other organs.
What a surprising transformation! Nor was this all. The change from
one form to the other was not direct. An intermediate state not
less singular intervened. After casting its skin even to its very
jaws several times, and attaining its full growth, the caterpillar
attached itself to a leaf by a silken girth. Its body greatly
contracted: its skin once more split asunder, and disclosed an
oviform mass, without exterior mouth, eyes, or limbs, and exhibiting
no other symptom of life than a slight motion when touched. In this
state of death-like torpor, and without tasting food, the insect
existed for several months, until at length the tomb burst, and out
of a case not more than an inch long, and a quarter of an inch in
diameter, proceeded the butterfly before you, which covers a surface
of nearly four inches square.
Almost every insect which you see has undergone a transformation as
singular and surprising, though varied in many of its circumstances.
That active little fly, now an unbidden guest at your table[85],
whose delicate palate selects your choicest viands, one while
extending his proboscis to the margin of a drop of wine, and then
gaily flying to take a more solid repast from a pear or a peach; now
gamboling with his comrades in the air, now gracefully currying his
furled wings with his taper feet,--was but the other day a disgusting
grub, without wings, without legs, without eyes, wallowing, well
pleased, in the midst of a mass of excrement.
The "grey-coated gnat," whose humming salutation, while she makes
her airy circles about your bed, gives terrific warning of the
sanguinary operation in which she is ready to engage, was a few
hours ago the inhabitant of a stagnant pool, more in shape like a
fish than an insect. Then to have been taken out of the water would
have been speedily fatal; now it could as little exist in any other
element than air. Then it breathed through its tail; now through
openings in its sides. Its shapeless head, in that period of its
existence, is now exchanged for one adorned with elegantly tufted
antennæ, and furnished, instead of jaws, with an apparatus more
artfully constructed than the cupping-glasses of the phlebotomist--an
apparatus which, at the same time that it strikes in the lancets,
composes a tube for pumping up the flowing blood.
The "shard-born beetle," whose "sullen horn," as he directs his
"droning flight" close past your ears in your evening walk, calling
up in poetic association the lines in which he has been alluded to by
Shakespear, Collins, and Gray, was not in his infancy an inhabitant of
air; the first period of his life being spent in gloomy solitude, as
a grub, under the surface of the earth.--The shapeless maggot, which
you scarcely fail to meet with in some one of every handful of nuts
you crack, would not always have grovelled in that humble state. If
your unlucky intrusion upon its vaulted dwelling had not left it to
perish in the wide world, it would have continued to reside there until
its full growth had been attained. Then it would have gnawed itself
an opening, and having entered the earth, and passed a few months in
a state of inaction, would at length have emerged an elegant beetle
furnished with a slender and very long ebony beak: two wings, and
two wing-cases, ornamented with yellow bands; six feet; and in every
respect unlike the worm from which it proceeded.
That bee--but it is needless to multiply instances. A sufficient number
has been adduced to show, that the apparently extravagant supposition
with which I set out may be paralleled in the insect world; and that
the metamorphoses of its inhabitants are scarcely less astonishing than
would be the transformation of a serpent into an eagle.
These changes I do not purpose explaining minutely in this place: they
will be adverted to more fully in subsequent letters. Here I mean
merely to give you such a general view of the subject as shall impress
you with its claims to attention, and such an explanation of the states
through which insects pass, and of the different terms made use of to
designate them in each, as shall enable you to comprehend the frequent
allusions which must be made to them in our future correspondence.
The states through which insects pass are four: the _egg_; the
_larva_; the _pupa_; and the _imago_.
The first of these need not be here adverted to. In the _second_, or
immediately after the exclusion from the egg, they are soft, without
wings, and in shape usually somewhat like worms. This Linné called
the _larva_ state, and an insect when in it a _larva_, adopting
a Latin word signifying a _mask_, because he considered the real
insect while under this form to be as it were masked. In the English
language we have no common term that applies to the second state of
all insects, though we have several for that of different tribes.
Thus we call the coloured and often hairy larvæ of butterflies and
moths _caterpillars_; the white and more compact larvæ of flies, many
beetles, &c. _grubs_ or _maggots_[86]; and the depressed larvæ of
many other insects _worms_. The two former terms I shall sometimes
use in a similar sense, rejecting the last, which ought to be
confined to true _vermes_; but I shall more commonly adopt Linné's
term, and call insects in their second state, _larvæ_[87].
In this period of their life, during which they eat voraciously and
cast their skin several times, insects live a shorter or longer
period, some only a few days or weeks, others several months or
years. They then cease eating; fix themselves in a secure place;
their skin separates once more and discloses an oblong body, and they
have now attained the _third_ state of their existence.
From the swathed appearance of most insects in this state, in which
they do not badly resemble in miniature a child trussed up like a
mummy in swaddling clothes, according to the barbarous fashion once
prevalent here, and still retained in many parts of the continent;
Linné has called it the _pupa_ state, and an insect when under this
form a _pupa_;--terms which will be here adopted in the same sense.
In this state, most insects eat no food; are incapable of locomotion;
and if opened seem filled with a watery fluid, in which no distinct
organs can be traced. Externally, however, the shape of the pupæ of
different tribes varies considerably, and different names have been
applied to them.
Those of the beetle and bee tribes are covered with a membranous
skin, inclosing in separate and distinct sheaths the external organs,
as the antennæ, legs, and wings, which are consequently not closely
applied to the body, but have their form for the most part clearly
distinguishable. To these Aristotle originally gave the name of
_nymphæ_[88], which was continued by Swammerdam and other authors
prior to Linné, who calls them _incomplete_ pupæ, and has been
adopted by many English writers on insects[89].
Butterflies, moths, and some of the two-winged tribe, are in their
pupa state also inclosed in a similar membranous envelope; but their
legs, antennæ, and wings, are closely folded over the breast and
sides; and the whole body inclosed in a common case or covering of a
more horny consistence, which admits a much less distinct view of the
organs beneath it. As these pupæ are often tinged of a golden colour,
they were called from this circumstance _chrysalides_ by the Greeks,
and _aureliæ_ by the Romans, both which terms are in some measure
become anglicized; and though not strictly applicable to ungilded
pupæ, are now often given to those of all lepidopterous insects[90].
These by Linné are denominated _obtected_ pupæ[91].
I have said that _most_ insects eat no food in the pupa state. This
qualification is necessary, because in the metamorphoses of insects,
as in all her other operations, nature proceeds by measured steps,
and a very considerable number (the tribe of locusts, cockroaches,
bugs, spiders, &c.) not only greatly resemble the perfect insect in
form, but are equally capable with it of eating and moving. As these
insects, however, cast their skins at stated periods, and undergo
changes, though slight, in their external and internal conformation,
they are regarded also as being subject to metamorphoses. These pupæ
may be subdivided into two classes: first, those comprised, with some
exceptions, under the Linnean _Aptera_, which in almost every respect
resemble the perfect insect, and were called by Linné _complete_ pupæ;
and secondly, those of the Linnean order _Hemiptera_, which resemble
the perfect insect, except in having only the rudiments of wings, and
to which the name of _semi-complete_ pupæ was applied by Linné, and
that of semi-nymphs by some other authors[92]. There is still a fifth
kind of pupæ, which are not, as in other instances, excluded from the
skin of the larva, but remain concealed under it, and were hence called
by Linné _coarctate_ pupæ. These, which are peculiar to flies and some
other dipterous genera, may be termed _cased-nymphs_[93].
When, therefore, we employ the term _pupa_, we may refer
indifferently to the third state of any insect, the particular order
being indicated by the context, or an explanatory epithet. The terms
_chrysalis_, (dropping _aurelia_, which is superfluous,) _nymph_,
_semi-nymph_, and _cased-nymph_, on the other hand definitely
pointing out the particular sort of pupa meant: just as in Botany,
the common term _pericarp_ applies to all seed-vessels, the several
kinds being designated by the names of capsule, silicle, &c.
The envelope of _cased-nymphs_, which is formed of the skin of the
larva, considerably altered in form and texture, may be conveniently
called the _puparium_[94]: but to the artificial coverings of
different kinds, whether of silk, wood, or earth, &c. which many
insects of the other orders fabricate for themselves previously to
assuming the pupa state, and which have been called by different
writers, _pods_, _cods_, _husks_, and _beans_, I shall continue the
more definite French term _cocon_, anglicized into _cocoon_[95].
After remaining a shorter or longer period, some species only a few
hours, others months, others one or more years, in the pupa state,
the inclosed insect, now become mature in all its parts, bursts the
case which inclosed it, quits the pupa, and enters upon the fourth
and last state.
We now see it (unless it be an apterous species) furnished with
wings, capable of propagation, and often under a form altogether
different from those which it has previously borne--a perfect beetle,
butterfly, or other insect. This Linné termed the _imago_ state,
and the animal that had attained to it the _imago_; because, having
laid aside its _mask_, and cast off its _swaddling bands_, being no
longer disguised or confined, or in any respect imperfect, it is now
become a true representative or _image_ of its species. This state
is in general referred to when an insect is spoken of without the
restricting terms larva or pupa.
Such being the singularity of the transformations of insects, you
will not think the ancients were so wholly unprovided with a show of
argument as we are accustomed to consider them, for their belief in
the possibility of many of the marvellous metamorphoses which their
poets recount. Utterly ignorant as they were of modern physiological
discoveries, the conversion of a caterpillar into a butterfly, must
have been a fact sufficient to put to a nonplus all the sceptical
oppugners of such transformations. And however we may smile in this
enlightened age at the inference drawn not two centuries ago by Sir
Theodore Mayerne, the editor of Mouffet's work on insects, "that if
animals are transmuted so may metals[96]," it was not, in fact, with
his limited knowledge on these subjects, so very preposterous. It
is even possible that some of the wonderful tales of the ancients
were grafted on the changes which they observed to take place in
insects. The death and revivification of the phœnix, from the ashes
of which, before attaining its perfect state, arose first a _worm_
(σκωληξ), in many of its particulars resembles what occurs in the
metamorphoses of insects. Nor is it very unlikely that the doctrine
of the metempsychosis took its rise from the same source. What
argument would be thought by those who maintained this doctrine more
plausible in favour of the transmigration of souls, than the seeming
revivification of the dead _chrysalis_? What more probable, than that
its apparent reassumption of life should be owing to its receiving
for tenant the soul of some criminal doomed to animate an insect of
similar habits with those which had defiled his human tenement[97]?
At the present day, however, the transformations of insects have
lost that excess of the marvellous, which might once have furnished
arguments for the fictions of the ancients, and the dreams of
Paracelsus. We call them metamorphoses and transformations, because
these terms are in common use, and are more expressive of the sudden
changes that ensue than any new ones. But, strictly, they ought
rather to be termed a series of developments. A caterpillar is not,
in fact, a simple but a compound animal, containing within it the
germ of the future butterfly, inclosed in what will be the case of
the pupa, which is itself included in the three or more skins, one
over the other, that will successively cover the larva. As this
increases in size these parts expand, present themselves, and are
in turn thrown off, until at length the perfect insect, which had
been concealed in this succession of masks, is displayed in its
genuine form. That this is the proper explanation of the phenomenon
has been satisfactorily proved by Swammerdam, Malpighi, and other
anatomists. The first-mentioned illustrious naturalist discovered,
by accurate dissections, not only the skins of the larva and of
the pupa incased in each other, but within them the very butterfly
itself, with its organs indeed in an almost fluid state, but still
perfect in all its parts[98]. Of this fact you may convince yourself
without Swammerdam's skill, by plunging into vinegar or spirit of
wine a caterpillar about to assume the pupa state, and letting it
remain there a few days for the purpose of giving consistency to its
parts; or by boiling it in water for a few minutes. A very rough
dissection will then enable you to detect the future butterfly; and
you will find that the wings, rolled up into a sort of cord, are
lodged between the first and second segment of the caterpillar;
that the antennæ and trunk are coiled up in front of the head; and
that the legs, however different their form, are actually sheathed
in its legs. Malpighi discovered the eggs of the future moth, in
the chrysalis of a silkworm only a few days old[99], and Reaumur
those of another moth (_Hypogymna dispar_) even in the caterpillar,
and that seven or eight days before its change into the pupa[100].
A caterpillar, then, may be regarded as a locomotive egg, having
for its embryo the included butterfly, which after a certain
period assimilates to itself the animal substances by which it is
surrounded; has its organs gradually developed; and at length breaks
through the shell which incloses it.
This explanation strips the subject of every thing miraculous, yet by
no means reduces it to a simple or uninteresting operation. Our reason
is confounded at the reflection that a larva, at first not thicker than
a thread, includes its own triple, or sometimes octuple, teguments;
the case of a chrysalis, and a butterfly, all curiously folded in each
other; with an apparatus of vessels for breathing and digesting, of
nerves for sensation, and of muscles for moving; and that these various
forms of existence will undergo their successive evolutions, by aid of
a few leaves received into its stomach. And still less able are we to
comprehend how this organ should at one time be capable of digesting
leaves, at another only honey; how one while a silky fluid should be
secreted, at another none; or how organs at one period essential to the
existence of the insect, should at another be cast off, and the whole
system which supported them vanish.
Nor does this explanation, though it precludes the idea of that
resemblance, in every particular, which, at one time, was thought
to obtain between the metamorphosis of insects, especially of the
_Lepidoptera_ order, and the resurrection of the body, do away that
general analogy which cannot fail to strike every one who at all
considers the subject. Even Swammerdam, whose observations have
proved that the analogy is not so complete as had been imagined,
speaking of the metamorphosis of insects, uses these strong words:
"This process is formed in so remarkable a manner in butterflies,
that we see therein the resurrection painted before our eyes, and
exemplified so as to be examined by our hands[101]." To see, indeed,
a caterpillar crawling upon the earth, sustained by the most ordinary
kinds of food, which, when it has existed a few weeks or months under
this humble form, its appointed work being finished, passes into an
intermediate state of seeming death, when it is wound up in a kind
of shroud and encased in a coffin, and is most commonly buried under
the earth, (though sometimes its sepulchre is in the water, and at
others in various substances in the air,) and after this creature
and others of its tribe have remained their destined time in this
death-like state, to behold earth, air, and water, give up their
several prisoners: to survey them, when, called by the warmth of
the solar beam, they burst from their sepulchres, cast off their
cerements, from this state of torpid inactivity, come forth, as a
bride out of her chamber,--to survey them, I say, arrayed in their
nuptial glory, prepared to enjoy a new and more exalted condition of
life, in which all their powers are developed, and they are arrived
at the perfection of their nature; when no longer confined to the
earth they can traverse the fields of air, their food is the nectar
of flowers, and love begins his blissful reign;--who that witnesses
this interesting scene can help seeing in it a lively representation
of man in his threefold state of existence, and more especially of
that happy day, when at the call of the great Sun of Righteousness,
all that are in the graves shall come forth, the sea shall give up
her dead, and death being swallowed up of life, the nations of the
blessed shall live and love to the ages of eternity?
But although the analogy between the different states of insects and
those of the body of man is only general, yet it is much more complete
with respect to his soul. He first appears in this frail body--a child
of the earth, a crawling worm, his soul being in a course of training
and preparation for a more perfect and glorious existence. Its course
being finished, it casts off the earthy body, and goes into a hidden
state of being in Hades, where it rests from its works, and is prepared
for its final consummation. The time for this being arrived, it comes
forth clothed with a glorious body, not like its former, though
germinating from it, for though "it was sown an animal body, it shall
be raised a spiritual body," endowed with augmented powers, faculties
and privileges commensurate to its new and happy state. And here the
parallel holds perfectly between the insect and the man. The butterfly,
the representative of the soul, is prepared in the _larva_ for its
future state of glory; and if it be not destroyed by the ichneumons
and other enemies to which it is exposed, symbolical of the vices that
destroy the spiritual life of the soul, it will come to its state
of repose in the _pupa_, which is its Hades; and at length, when it
assumes the _imago_, break forth with new powers and beauty to its
final glory and the reign of love. So that in this view of the subject
well might the Italian poet exclaim:
Non v' accorgete voi, che noi siam' vermi
Nati a formar l' angelica farfalla[102]?
The Egyptian fable, as it is supposed to be, of Cupid and Psyche,
seems built upon this foundation. "Psyche," says an ingenious and
learned writer, "means in Greek the human soul; and it means also a
butterfly[103], of which apparently strange double sense the undoubted
reason is, that a butterfly was a very ancient symbol of the soul--from
the prevalence of this symbol, and the consequent coincidence of the
names, it happened that the Greek sculptors frequently represented
Psyche as subject to Cupid in the shape of a butterfly; and that even
when she appears in their works under the human form, we find her
decorated with the light and filmy wings of that gay insect[104]."
The following beautiful little poem falls in so exactly with the
subject I have been discussing, that I cannot resist the temptation
I feel to copy it for you, especially as I am not aware that it has
appeared any where but in a newspaper.
THE BUTTERFLY'S BIRTH-DAY.
BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE BUTTERFLY'S BALL."
The shades of night were scarcely fled;
The air was mild, the winds were still;
And slow the slanting sun-beams spread
O'er wood and lawn, o'er heath and hill:
From fleecy clouds of pearly hue
Had dropt a short but balmy shower,
That hung like gems of morning dew
On every tree and every flower:
And from the Blackbird's mellow throat
Was pour'd so loud and long a swell,
As echoed with responsive note
From mountain side and shadowy dell:
When bursting forth to life and light,
The offspring of enraptured May,
The BUTTERFLY, on pinions bright,
Launch'd in full splendour on the day.
Unconscious of a mother's care,
No infant wretchedness she knew;
But as she felt the vernal air,
At once to full perfection grew.
Her slender form, ethereal light,
Her velvet-textured wings infold;
With all the rainbow's colours bright,
And dropt with spots of burnish'd gold.
Trembling with joy awhile she stood,
And felt the sun's enlivening ray;
Drank from the skies the vital flood,
And wonder'd at her plumage gay!
And balanced oft her broider'd wings,
Through fields of air prepared to sail:
Then on her vent'rous journey springs,
And floats along the rising gale.
Go, child of pleasure, range the fields,
Taste all the joys that spring can give,
Partake what bounteous summer yields,
And live whilst yet 'tis thine to live.
Go sip the rose's fragrant dew,
The lily's honeyed cup explore,
From flower to flower the search renew,
And rifle all the woodbine's store:
And let me trace thy vagrant flight,
Thy moments too of short repose,
And mark thee then with fresh delight
Thy golden pinions ope and close.
But hark! whilst thus I musing stand,
Pours on the gale an airy note,
And breathing from a viewless band,
Soft silvery tones around me float!
--They cease--but still a voice I hear,
A whisper'd voice of hope and joy,
"Thy hour of rest approaches near,
"Prepare thee, mortal!--thou must die!
"Yet start not!--on thy closing eyes
"Another day shall still unfold,
"A sun of milder radiance rise,
"A happier age of joys untold.
"Shall the poor worm that shocks thy sight,
"The humblest form in nature's train,
"Thus rise in new-born lustre bright,
"And yet the emblem teach in vain?
"Ah! where were once her golden eyes,
"Her glittering wings of purple pride?
"Conceal'd beneath a rude disguise,
"A shapeless mass to earth allied.
"Like thee the hapless reptile lived,
"Like thee he toil'd, like thee he spun,
"Like thine his closing hour arrived,
"His labour ceased, his web was done.
"And shalt thou, number'd with the dead,
"No happier state of being know?
"And shall no future morrow shed
"On thee a beam of brighter glow?
"Is this the bound of power divine,
"To animate an insect frame?
"Or shall not He who moulded thine
"Wake at his will the vital flame?
"Go, mortal! in thy reptile state,
"Enough to know to thee is given;
"Go, and the joyful truth relate;
"Frail child of earth! high heir of heaven!"
A question here naturally presents itself--Why are insects subject
to these changes? For what end is it that, instead of preserving
like other animals[105] the same general form from infancy to old
age, they appear at one period under a shape so different from
that which they finally assume; and why should they pass through
an intermediate state of torpidity so extraordinary? I can only
answer that such is the will of the Creator, who doubtless had the
wisest ends in view, although we are incompetent satisfactorily
to discover them. Yet one reason for this conformation may be
hazarded. A very important part assigned to insects in the economy
of nature, as I shall hereafter show, is that of speedily removing
superabundant and decaying animal and vegetable matter. For such
agents an insatiable voracity is an indispensable qualification, and
not less so unusual powers of multiplication. But these faculties
are in a great degree incompatible. An insect occupied in the work
of reproduction could not continue its voracious feeding. Its life,
therefore, after leaving the egg, is divided into three stages.
In the first, as _larva_, it is in a state of sterility; its sole
object is the satisfying its insatiable hunger; and, for digesting
the masses of food which it consumes, its intestines are almost all
stomach. This is usually by much the longest period of its existence.
Having now laid up a store of materials for the development of the
future perfect insect, it becomes a _pupa_; and during this inactive
period the important process slowly proceeds, uninterrupted by the
calls of appetite. At length the perfect insect is disclosed. It
now often requires no food at all; and scarcely ever more than a
very small quantity; for the reception of which its stomach has been
contracted, in some instances, to a tenth of its former bulk. Its
almost sole object is now the multiplication of its kind, from which
it is diverted by no other propensity; and this important duty being
performed, the end of its existence has been answered, and it expires.
It must be confessed that some objections might be thrown out
against this hypothesis, yet I think none that would not admit of a
plausible answer. To these it is foreign to my purpose now to attend,
and I shall conclude this letter by pointing out to you the variety
of new relations which this arrangement introduces into nature. One
individual unites in itself, in fact, three species, whose modes
of existence are often as different as those of the most distantly
related animals of other tribes. The same insect often lives
successively in three or four worlds. It is an inhabitant of the
water during one period; of the earth during another; and of the air
during a third; and fitted for its various abodes by new organs and
instruments, and a new form in each. Think (to use an illustration of
Bonnet) but of the cocoon of the silkworm! How many hands, how many
machines does not this little ball put into motion! Of what riches
should we not have been deprived, if the moth of the silkworm had
been born a moth, without having been previously a caterpillar! The
domestic economy of a large portion of mankind would have been formed
on a plan altogether different from that which now prevails.
I am, &c.
FOOTNOTES:
[85] "Cœnis etiam non vocatus ut Musca advolo." Aristophon _in
Pythagorista_ apud Athenæum. (Mouffet, 56.)
[86] _Gentils_, or _gentles_, is a synonymous word employed by our
old authors, but is now obsolete, except with anglers. Thus Tusser,
in a passage pointed out to me by Sir Joseph Banks:--
"Rewerd not thy sheep when ye take off his cote
With twitches and patches as brode as a grote;
Let not such ungentlenesse happen to thine,
Least fly with her _gentils_ do make it to pine."
[87] For different kinds of larvæ, see PLATES XVII. XVIII. XIX.
[88] _Hist. Anim._ l. 5. c. 10.
[89] PLATE XVI. FIG. 6-9.
[90] In explanation of the terms _Lepidoptera_, _Lepidopterous_,
_Coleoptera_, &c. which will frequently occur in the following pages
before coming regularly to definitions, it is necessary here to state
that they have reference to the names given by entomologists to the
different orders or tribes of insects, as under:
1 _Coleoptera_ consisting of _Beetles_. Plate I. Fig. 1-6.
2 _Strepsiptera_----of the genera _Xenos_ and _Stylops_. Plate
II. Fig. 1.
3 _Dermaptera_----of the _Earwigs_. Plate I. Fig. 7.
4 _Orthoptera_----of _Cockroaches_, _Locusts_, _Grasshoppers_,
_Crickets_, _Spectres_, _Mantes_, _&c._ Plate II. Fig. 2. 3.
5 _Hemiptera_ consisting of _Bugs_, _Cicadæ_, _Water-scorpions_,
_Water-boat-men_, _Plant-lice_, _Cochineal_ Insects, &c. Plate
II. Fig. 4. 5.
6 _Trichoptera_ consisting of the _flies_ produced by the various
species of _Case-worms_, _Phryganea_, L. Plate III. Fig. 4.
7 _Lepidoptera_ consisting of _Butterflies_, _Hawkmoths_, and
_Moths_. Plate III. Fig. 1-3.
8 _Neuroptera_ consisting of _Dragon-flies_, _Ant-lions_,
_Ephemeræ_, _&c._ Plate III. Fig. 5. 6.
9 _Hymenoptera_ consisting of _Bees_, _Wasps_, and other insects
armed with a _sting_ or _ovipositor_, and its _valves_. Plate
IV. Fig. 1-3.
10 _Diptera_ consisting of _Flies_, _Gnats_, and other
_two-winged_ insects. Plate IV. Fig. 4. 5. Plate V. Fig. 1.
11 _Aphaniptera_ consisting of the _Flea_ tribe. Plate V. Fig. 2.
12 _Aptera_----of _Mites_, _Lice_, &c. Plate V. Fig. 3-6.
[91] PLATE XVI. FIG. 10-13.
[92] PLATE XVI. FIG. 4. 5.
[93] PLATE XVII. FIG. 1-4.
[94] PLATE XVII. FIG. 2.
[95] PLATE XVII. FIG. 5-10.
[96] Epist. Dedicat.
[97] "A priest who has drunk wine shall migrate into a moth or
fly, feeding on ordure. He who steals the gold of a priest shall
pass a thousand times into the bodies of spiders. If a man shall
steal honey, he shall be born a great stinging gnat; if oil, an
oil-drinking beetle; if salt, a cicada; if a household utensil, an
ichneumon fly." _Institutes of Menu_, 353.
[98] Hill's _Swamm._ ii. 24. t. 37. f. 2. 4.
[99] _De Bombyce_, 29.
[100] Reaum. i. 359.
[101] Hill's _Swamm._ i. 127 a.
[102] Do you not perceive that we are caterpillars, born to form the
angelic butterfly?
[103] It is worthy of remark, that in the north and west of England
the moths that fly into candles are called _saules_ (souls), perhaps
from the old notion that the souls of the dead fly about at night in
search of light. For the same reason, probably, the common people in
Germany call them _ghosts_ (geistchen).
[104] Nares's _Essays_, i. 101-2.
[105] A few vertebrate animals, viz. frogs, toads, and newts, undergo
metamorphoses in some respects analogous to those of insects; their
first form as tadpoles being very different from that which they
afterwards assume. These reptiles too, as well as snakes, cast their
skin by an operation somewhat similar to that in _larvæ_. There is
nothing, however, in their metamorphoses at all resembling the _pupa_
state in insects.
LETTER IV.
_INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS._
DIRECT INJURIES.
In the letter which I devoted to the defence of Entomology, I gave
you reason to expect, more effectually to obviate the objection
drawn from the supposed insignificance of insects, that I should
enter largely into the question of their importance to us both as
instruments of good and evil. This I shall now attempt; and, as I
wish to leave upon your mind a pleasant impression with respect to
my favourites, I shall begin with the last of these subjects--the
_injury_ which they do to us.
The Almighty ordains various instruments for the punishment of
offending nations: sometimes he breaks them to pieces with the iron
rod of war; at others the elements are let loose against them;
earthquakes and floods of fire, at his word, bring sudden destruction
upon them; seasons unfriendly to vegetation threaten them with
famine; the blight and mildew realize these threats; and often, the
more to manifest and glorify his power, he employs means, at first
sight, apparently the most insignificant and inadequate to effect
their ruin; the numerous tribes of _insects_ are his armies[106],
marshalled by him, and by his irresistible command impelled to the
work of destruction: where he directs them they lay waste the earth,
and famine and the pestilence often follow in their train.
The generality of mankind overlook or disregard these powerful,
because minute, dispensers of punishment; seldom considering in
how many ways their welfare is affected by them: but the fact is
certain, that should it please God to give them a general commission
against us, and should he excite them to attack, at the same time,
our bodies, our clothing, our houses, our cattle, and the produce of
our fields and gardens, we should soon be reduced, in every possible
respect, to a state of extreme wretchedness; the prey of the most
filthy and disgusting diseases, divested of a covering, unsheltered,
except by caves and dungeons, from the inclemency of the seasons,
exposed to all the extremities of want and famine; and in the end, as
Sir Joseph Banks, speaking on this subject, has well observed[107],
driven with all the larger animals from the face of the earth. You
may smile, perhaps, and think this a high-coloured picture, but you
will recollect--I am not stating the mischiefs that insects commonly
do, but what they would do according to all probability, if certain
counter-checks restraining them within due limits had not been put in
action; and which they actually do, as you will see, in particular
cases, when those counter-checks are diminished or removed.
Insects may be said, without hyperbole, to have established a kind
of universal empire over the earth and its inhabitants. This is
principally conspicuous in the injuries which they occasion, for
nothing in nature that possesses or has possessed animal or vegetable
life, is safe from their inroads. Neither the cunning of the fox,
nor the swiftness of the horse or deer, nor the strength of the
buffalo, nor the ferocity of the lion or tiger, nor the armour of
the rhinoceros, nor the giant bulk or sagacity of the elephant, nor
even the authority of imperial man, who boasts himself to be the
lord of all, can secure them from becoming a prey to these despised
beings. The air affords no protection to the birds, nor the water to
the fish; insects pursue them all to their most secret conclaves and
strongest citadels, and compel them to submit to their sway. Flora's
empire is still more exposed to their cruel domination and ravages;
and there is scarcely one of her innumerable subjects, from the oak,
the glory of the forest, to the most minute lichen that grows upon
its trunk, that is not destined to be the food of these next to
nonentities in our estimation. And when life departs from man, the
inferior animals, or vegetables, they become universally, sooner or
later, the inheritance of insects.
I shall principally bespeak your attention to the injuries in question
as they affect ourselves. These may be divided into direct and
indirect. By _direct_ injuries I mean every species of attack upon our
own persons, and by _indirect_, such as are made upon our property. To
the former of these I shall confine myself in the present letter.
* * * * *
Insects, as to their _direct_ attacks upon us, may be arranged in
three principal classes. Those, namely, which seek to make us their
food; those whose object is to prevent or revenge an injury which
they either fear, or have received from us; and those which indeed
offer us no violence, but yet incommode us extremely in other ways.
I hope I shall not too much offend your delicacy if I begin the first
class of our insect assailants with a very disgusting genus, which
Providence seems to have created to punish inattention to personal
cleanliness. But though this pest of man must not be wholly passed
over, yet, since it is unfortunately too well known, it will not be
at all necessary for me to enlarge upon its history. I shall only
mention one fact which shows the astonishingly rapid increase of
these animals, where they have once gotten possession. It is a vulgar
notion, that a louse in twenty-four hours may see two generations;
but this is rather overshooting the mark. Leeuwenhoek, whose love for
science overcame the nausea that such creatures are apt to excite,
proves that their nits or eggs are not hatched till the eighth day
after they are laid, and that they do not themselves commence laying
before they are a month old. He ascertained, however, that a single
female louse may, in eight weeks, witness the birth of five thousand
descendants[108]. You remember how wolves were extirpated from this
country, but perhaps never suspected any monarch of imposing a
tribute of _lice_ upon his subjects. Yet we are gravely told that in
Mexico and Peru such a _poll_-tax was exacted, and that bags full of
these treasures were found in the palace of Montezuma[109]!!! Were
our own taxes paid in such coin, what little grumbling would there be!
Two other species of this genus, besides the common louse, are, in
this country, parasites upon the human body----But already I seem
to hear you exclaim, "Why dwell so long on creatures so odious and
nauseating, whose injuries are confined to the _profanum vulgus_?
Leave them therefore to the canaille--they are nothing to us." Not
so fast, my friend--recollect what historians and other writers have
recorded concerning the _Phthiriasis_ or pedicular disease, and you
must own that, for the quelling of human pride, and to pull down the
high conceits of mortal man, this most loathsome of all maladies, or
one equally disgusting, has been the inheritance of the rich, the
wise, the noble, and the mighty; and in the list of those that have
fallen victims to it, you will find poets, philosophers, prelates,
princes, kings, and emperors. It seems more particularly to have
been a judgement of God upon oppression and tyranny, whether civil
or religious. Thus the inhuman Pheretima mentioned by Herodotus,
Antiochus Epiphanes, the Dictator Sylla, the two Herods, the Emperor
Maximin, and, not to mention more, the great persecutor of the
Protestants, Philip the Second, were carried off by it.
I say by this malady, _or one equally disgusting_, because it is not
by any means certain, though some learned men have so supposed, that
all these instances, and others of a similar nature, standing also
upon record, are to be referred to the same specific cause; since
there is very sufficient reason for thinking that at least _three_
different descriptions of insects are concerned in the various
cases that have been handed down to us under the common name of
_Phthiriasis_. As the subject of maladies connected with insects,
or produced by them, is both curious and interesting, although no
writer, that I am aware of, has given it full consideration, and
at the same time falls in with my general design, I hope you will
not regard me as guilty of presumption, and of intruding into the
province of medical men, if I enter rather largely into it, and
state to you the reasons that have induced me to embrace the above
hypothesis, leaving you full liberty to reject it if you do not find
it consonant to reason and fact. The three kinds of insects to which
I allude, as concerned in cases that have been deemed Phthiriasis,
are lice (_Pediculi_, L.) mites (_Acari_, L.), and _Larvæ_ in general.
As far as the habits of the genus _Pediculus_, whether inhabiting man
or the inferior animals, are at present known, it does not appear,
from any well ascertained fact, that the species belonging to it
are ever _subcutaneous_. For this observation, as far as it relates
to man, I can produce the highest medical authority. "The louse
feeds on the surface of the skin," says the learned Dr. Mead in his
_Medica Sacra_; and Dr. Willan, in his palmary work on _Cutaneous
Diseases_, remarks with respect to the body-louse, "that the nits, or
eggs, are deposited on the small hairs of the skin," and that "the
animals are found on the skin, or on the linen, and not under the
cuticle, as some authors have represented." And he further observes,
that "many marvellous stories are related by Forestus, Schenkius and
others respecting lice bred under the skin, and discharged in swarms
from abscesses, strumous ulcers, and vesications. The mode in which
Pediculi are generated being now so well ascertained, no credit can
be given to these accounts." Thus far this great man, who however
supposes (in which opinion Dr. Bateman concurs with him) that the
authors to whom he alludes had mistaken for lice some other species
of insects, which are not unfrequently found in putrefactive sores.
If these observations be allowed their due weight, it will follow, that
a disease produced by animals residing under the cuticle cannot be a
true Phthiriasis, and therefore the death of the poet Alcman, and of
Pherecydes Syrius the philosopher, mentioned by Aristotle, must have
been occasioned by some other kind of insect. For, speaking of the
lice to which he attributes these catastrophes, he says that "they are
produced in the flesh in small pustule-like tumours, which have no pus,
and from which when punctured, they issue[110]." For the same reason,
the disorder which Dr. Heberden has described in his _Commentaries_,
from the communications of Sir E. Wilmot, under the name of _Morbus
pedicularis_, must also be a different disease, since, with Aristotle,
he likewise represents the insects as inhabiting tumours, from which
they may be extracted when opened by a needle. He says, indeed, that in
every respect they resemble the common lice, except in being whiter;
but medical men, who were not at the same time entomologists, might
easily mistake an Acarus for a Pediculus[111].
Dr. Willan, in one case of _Prurigo senilis_, observed a number
of small insects on the patient's skin and linen. They were quick
in their motion, and so minute that it required some attention to
discover them. He took them at first for small Pediculi; but under
a lens they appeared to him rather to be a nondescript species of
Pulex[112]; yet the figure he gives has not the slightest likeness
to the latter genus, while it bears a striking resemblance to the
former. It is not clear whether his draughtsman meant to represent
the insect with six or with eight legs: if it had only six, it was
probably a Pediculus; but if it had eight, it would form a new genus
between the _Acarina_ and the hexapod _Aptera_. Dr. Bateman, in reply
to some queries put to him, at my request, by our common and lamented
friend Dr. Reeve, relates that he understood from Dr. Willan, in
conversation, that the insect in question jumped in its motion. This
circumstance he regards as conclusive against its being a Pediculus;
but such a consequence does not necessarily follow, since it not
seldom happens that insects of the same tribe or genus either have or
have not this faculty; for instance, compare _Scirtes_ with _Cyphon_,
small beetles, and _Acarus Scabiei_ with other _Acari_[113].
Dr. Willan has quoted with approbation two cases from Amatus
Lusitanus, which he seems to think correctly described as
Phthiriasis. In one of them, however, which terminated fatally, the
circumstances seem rather hyperbolically stated--I mean, where it is
said that two black servants had no other employment than carrying
baskets full of these insects to the sea!! Perhaps you will think I
draw largely upon your credulity if I call upon you to believe this;
I shall therefore leave you to act as you please.--Thus much for pure
Phthiriasis, which term ought to be confined to maladies produced
by _lice_. I shall only further observe, that as many species as
exist of these, which are the causes of disease, so many kinds of
Phthiriasis will there be.
_Acari_, or mites, are the next insect sources of disease in the human
species, and that not of one, but probably of many kinds both local and
general. They are distinguished from Pediculi not only by their form,
but also often by their situation, since they frequently establish
themselves under the cuticle. With respect to local disorders, Dr.
Adams conjectures that Acari may be the cause of certain cases of
_Ophthalmia_. Sir J. Banks, in a letter to that gentleman, relates that
some seamen belonging to the Endeavour brig, being tormented with a
severe itching round the extremities of the eyelids, one of them was
cured by an Otaheitan woman, who with two small splinters of bamboo
extracted from between the _cilia_ abundance of very minute lice, which
were scarcely visible without a lens, though their motion, when laid
on the thumb, was distinctly perceived. These insects were probably
synonymous with the _Ciron des paupières_ of Sauvages[114].--Le Jeune,
a French physician quoted in Mouffet, describes a case, in which what
seems a different species, since he calls them rather large, infested
the white of the eye, exciting an intolerable itching[115].--Dr. Mead,
from the _German Ephemerides_, gives an account of a woman suckling
her child, from whose breast proceeded very minute vermicles[116].
These were probably mites, and perhaps that species, which, from its
feeding upon milk, Linné denominates _Acarus Lactis_. The great author
last mentioned describes an insect, a native of America, under the
name of _Pediculus Ricinoides_, which, upon the authority of Rolander,
he informs us, gets into the feet of people as they walk, sucks their
blood, oviposits[117] in them, and so occasions very dangerous ulcers.
It would be an Acarus, he observes, but it has only six legs. Now
Hermann affirms, that some species of _Trombidium_ (a genus separated
by Fabricius from _Acarus_) have in no state more than six legs[118].
Others of the tribe of _Acarina_, and the insect in question amongst
the rest, may be similarly circumstanced; or those that Rolander
examined might have been larvæ, which in this tribe are usually
hexapods.
Linné appears to have been of opinion that many contagious diseases are
caused by mites[119]. How far he was justified in this opinion I shall
not here inquire; facts alone can decide the question, and observations
made by men acquainted with Entomology as well as the science of
diseases. Considerable deference and attention, however, are certainly
due to the sentiments of so great a naturalist, in whom these necessary
qualifications were united in no common degree. With respect to the
dysentery and the itch, he affirms that this had been manifested to his
eyes. You will wish probably to know the arguments that may be adduced
in confirmation of this opinion; I will therefore endeavour to satisfy
you as well as I am able. The following history given by Linné seems to
prove the dysentery connected with these animals.
Rolander, a student in Entomology, while he resided in the house of
the illustrious Swede, was attacked by the disease in question, which
quickly gave way to the usual remedies. Eight days after, it returned
again, and was as before soon removed. A third time, at the end of the
same period, he was seized with it. All the while he had been living
like the rest of the family, who had nevertheless escaped. This,
of course, occasioned no little inquiry into the cause of what had
happened. Linné, aware that Bartholinus had attributed the dysentery
to _insects_, which he professed to have seen, recommended it to his
pupil to examine his feces. Rolander, following this advice, discovered
in them innumerable animalcules, which upon a close examination proved
to be mites. It was next a question how he alone came to be singled
out by them; and thus he accounts for it. It was his habit not to
drink at his meals; but in the night, growing thirsty, he often sipped
some liquid out of a vessel made of juniper wood. Inspecting this very
narrowly, he observed, in the chinks between the ribs, a white line,
which, when viewed under a lens, he found to consist of innumerable
mites, precisely the same with those that he had voided. Various
experiments were tried with them, and a preparation of rhubarb was
found to destroy them most effectually. He afterwards discovered them
in vessels containing acids, and often under the bung of casks[120]. In
the instance here recorded, the dysentery, or diarrhœa, was evidently
produced by a species of mite, which Linné hence called _Acarus
Dysenteriæ_; but it would be going too far, I apprehend, to assert that
they are invariably the cause of that disease.
That _Scabies_, or the itch, is occasioned by a mite, is not a
doctrine peculiar to the moderns. Mouffet mentions Abinzoar, called
also Avenzoar, a celebrated Hispano-Arabian physician of Seville, who
flourished in the twelfth century, as the most ancient author that
notices it. He calls these mites little lice that creep under the skin
of the hands, legs, and feet, exciting pustules full of fluid[121].
Joubert, quoted by the same author, describes them under the name of
_Sirones_, as always being concealed beneath the epidermis, under which
they creep like moles, gnawing it, and causing a most troublesome
itching. It appears that Mouffet, or whoever was the author of that
part of the _Theatrum Insectorum_, was himself also well acquainted
with these animals, since he remarks that their habitation is not in
the pustule but near it: a remark afterwards confirmed by Linné[122],
and more recently by Dr. Adams[123]. In common with the former of these
authors, Mouffet further notices the effect of warmth upon them in
exciting motion[124]. Our intelligent countryman also observes that
they cannot be Pediculi, since they live under the cuticle, which lice
never do[125]. In the epistle dedicatory, the editor speaks also of
them as living in burrows which they have excavated in the skin near a
lake of water; from which if they be extracted with a needle and put
upon the nail, they show in the sun their red head and the feet with
which they walk[126]. And to close my _veteran_ authorities, Junius
thus explains the word Acarus, as I find him quoted in Gouldman's
useful dictionary, "A small worm, which eats under the skin, and makes
burrows in itching hands[127]."
In more modern times, microscopical figures have been added to
descriptions of the insect. Bonomo first furnished this valuable
species of elucidation. His figures, however, which are copied by
Baker in his work on the microscope, are far from accurate[128].
Those of De Geer and Dr. Adams are much more satisfactory, and
mutually confirm each other[129]. From them it is evident that the
same insect inhabits the scabies of Sweden and Madeira. Dr. Bateman,
in the letter before alluded to, informs his correspondent, that he
had seen that from Madeira, and gives it as his opinion, that there
cannot be a doubt of the existence of an _Acarus Scabiei_; an opinion
which he repeats in his late work on _Cutaneous Diseases_; and which,
according to Hermann[130], has been also rendered unquestionable by
Wichmann in his _Etiologie de la Gale_ (Hanovre 1786), a work I have
not had an opportunity of consulting. From all this we may regard the
point as so far settled, that an animal of this kind exists at least
as an occasional concomitant of scabies.
This fact being ascertained, a more complex inquiry remains, which
branches out into two distinct questions. Is scabies always produced
by these insects? Or, if this be not the case, Is the _animate_
scabies a distinct disease from the _inanimate_?
It is very remarkable that Linné, a physician as well as a
naturalist; and De Geer, one of the most accurate observers that ever
existed; should both assign the insect in question as the undoubted
cause of the _common_ scabies of their country; the one applying to
the disease he was speaking of the epithet of _communissima_, and
observing the fact to be notorious, (_cuique liquet_,) and the other
designating it by its well known French name "_La Gale_[131]." And is
it not equally remarkable that such men as John Hunter, Dr. Heberden,
Dr. Bateman, Dr. Adams, and Mr. Baker, should never, in this
country, have been able to meet with it? Did it indeed exist in our
common scabies, it seems impossible that it could have escaped the
observation of the two last of these gentlemen; Dr. Adams being so
well qualified to detect it from his observations in Madeira, and Mr.
Baker from his expertness in microscopical researches. Dr. Bateman,
in the letter above quoted, says, "I have hunted it with a good
magnifier, in many cases of itch, both in and near the pustules, and
in the red streaks or furrows, but always without success." In his
work on _Cutaneous Diseases_ he tells us, however, that he has seen
it, in one instance, when it had been taken from the diseased surface
by another practitioner. And though Dr. Willan in his book speaks
of the Acarus as the concomitant of this disease, yet his learned
friend just mentioned observes, that he admitted that it was not to
be found in ordinary cases, and indeed never seemed to have made up
his mind upon the subject. When I was at Norwich in 1812, Dr. Reeve
very kindly accompanied me to the House of Industry there, to examine
a patient whose body was very full of the pustules of this disorder;
but though we used a good magnifier, we could discover nothing like
an insect. I must observe, however, that our examination was made in
December, in severe weather, when the cold might, perhaps, render the
animal torpid, and less easy to be discovered.
From the above facts it seems fair to infer that this animal is not
invariably the cause of scabies, but that there are cases with which
it has no connexion. Now, from this inference, would not another
also follow, that the disease produced by the insect is specifically
distinct from that in which it cannot be found? Sauvages and Dr.
Adams are both of this opinion[132], the former assigning to it the
trivial name of _vermicularis_; and the latter proving, by very
satisfactory arguments, that it is different from the other. If they
were both _animate_ diseases, but derived from two distinct species
of animals, (for it seems not impossible that even our common itch
may be caused by a mite more minute than the other, and so more
difficult to find,) they would properly be considered as distinct
species; much more, therefore, if one be _animate_ and the other
_inanimate_. Nay this, I should think, would lead to a doubt whether
even their _genus_ were the same. I shall dismiss this part of my
subject with the mention of a discovery of Dr. Adams, which seems to
have escaped both Linné and De Geer--that the _Acarus Scabiei_ is
endowed with the faculty of leaping; (in this respect resembling the
insect found by Willan in _Prurigo senilis_ mentioned above;) for
which purpose its four posterior thighs are incrassated[133].
But besides these _Acarine_ diseases, there seems to be one (unless
with Linné we regard the plague as of this class[134]) more fearful
and fatal than them all. You will, perhaps, conjecture I am speaking
of that described by Aristotle and Sir E. Wilmot as the Phthiriasis,
and your conjecture will be right. But some think, and those men
of merited celebrity, that _mites_ have nothing to do in these and
similar cases, for that _maggots_ were the parasites mistaken for
lice. This, from the passage above quoted, appears to have been Dr.
Willan's opinion, to which, in the letter so often referred to, Dr.
Bateman subscribes; adding as a reason for excluding mites from being
concerned, that "they are too minute, and never have been seen in
such numbers as to be mistaken for lice." But both vary in size, some
of the former being larger than some of the latter. And allowing them
to be ever so minute, yet when they issue in swarms, as mites from a
cheese, they would be very visible, were it only from their motion.
Besides, as they are furnished with legs, their motions resemble
those of lice infinitely more than do the contortions of maggots. So
that a mite would be deemed a louse much sooner by an unentomological
observer than would a maggot. Whether mites have ever been seen in
such numbers as to be mistaken for lice, is the point in question;
and therefore, by itself, cannot be admitted for a valid argument.
Though _Acarus Scabiei_ does not appear to swarm in ordinary cases,
yet this is certainly no reason why other species may not do so.
Where it has once made a settlement, how incredibly, and in how
short a space of time, does the _Siro_ or cheese-mite multiply!
_Acarus Destructor_ and many other species are equally rapid in their
increase.--Millions of lice are said by Lafontaine, whom Hermann
calls a very exact describer, to show themselves in _Plica polonica_,
on the third day of the disease[135]; but whether the last-mentioned
author be correct in thinking it more probable that they are
mites[136], I have not the means of judging.
I shall now produce two instances where mites were evidently
concerned. Dr. Mead, from the _German Ephemerides_, relates the
miserable case of a French nobleman, from whose eyes, nostrils,
mouth, and urinary passage animalcules of a red colour, and
excessively minute, broke forth day and night, attended by the most
horrible and excruciating pains, and at length occasioned his death.
The account further says, that they were produced from his corrupted
blood. This was probably a fancy originating in their red colour:
but the whole history, whether we consider the size and colour of
the animals, or the places from which they issue, is inapplicable
to _larvæ_ or maggots, and agrees very well with _mites_, some of
which, particularly _Leptus autumnalis_, are of a bright red colour.
The other case, and a very similar one, is that recorded by Mouffet
of Lady Penruddock; concerning whom he expressly tells us, that
Acari swarmed in every part of her body--her head, eyes, nose, lips,
gums, the soles of her feet, &c., tormenting her day and night,
till, in spite of every remedy, all the flesh of her body being
consumed, she was at length relieved by death from this terrible
state of suffering. Mouffet attributes her disease to the _Acarus
Scabiei_; but from the symptoms and fatal result it seems to have
been a different and much more terrific animal. He supposes, in this
instance, the insect to have been generated by drinking goat's milk
too copiously. This, if correct, would lead to a conjecture that it
might have been the _A. Lactis_, L.
These cases I hope will satisfy you that mites, as well as lice,
are the cause of diseases in the human frame. This, indeed, as has
been before observed, is allowed on all hands with respect to that
of the itch; and it is, certainly, not more improbable that man
should be exposed to the attack of several species of this genus,
than that three or four kinds of Pediculus should infest him. If you
are convinced by what I have written, you will concur with me in
thinking that the one are as much entitled to give their name to the
disease which they produce as the other; and the term _Acariasis_, by
which, with due deference to medical men, I propose to distinguish
generically all acarine diseases, will not be refused its place
amongst your _Genera Morborum_.
I shall now proceed to the remaining class of diseases mistaken for
Phthiriasis; those, namely, which are produced by _larvæ_. There are
two terms employed by ancient authors, _Eulæ_ (Ευλαι) and _Scolex_
(Σκωληξ), which seem properly to denote larvæ; but there is often
such a want of precision in the language of writers unacquainted with
Natural History, that it is very difficult to make out what objects
they mean; and expressions which, strictly taken, should be understood
of larvæ, may probably sometimes have been used to denote the cause of
either the pedicular or acarine disease. _Eulæ_, which term, though
given by Hesychius as synonymous with _Scolex_, is by Plutarch used
as of different import[137], seems properly to mean those larvæ which
are generated in dead carcases, at least so Homer has more than once
applied it[138]: it is therefore a word of a much more restricted sense
than _Scolex_, which probably belongs to the larvæ of every order of
insects; for so Aristotle employs it, when he says that all insects
produce a _Scolex_, or are larviparous[139]. Yet when Homer compares
Harpalion stretched dead upon the ground to a _Scolex_[140], it should
seem as if he used the word for an earth-worm, which Aristotle commonly
calls by a figurative periphrasis, "Entrails of the earth[141]." In the
Holy Scriptures this word is used to signify larvæ which prey upon and
are the torment of living bodies[142]. It may on this account, perhaps,
be regarded as generally meaning such larvæ, to whatever order or genus
they belong.
Dr. Mead, therefore, is most probably right when he considers the
disease stated by the ancients to be caused by _Eulæ_ or _Scoleches_,
commonly translated worms, as distinct from Phthiriasis; and if so,
the inhuman Pheretima, who swarmed with _Eulæ_, and Herod Agrippa, who
was eaten of _Scoleches_[143], were probably neither of them destroyed
either by Pediculi or Acari, but by larvæ or maggots. And when Galen
prescribed a remedy for ulcers inhabited by _Scoleches_, observing that
animals similar to those generated by putrid substances are often found
in abscesses, he probably meant the same thing. The proper appellation
of this genus of diseases would be _Scolechiasis_.
This dissertation may perhaps appear to you rather prolix and
tedious: yet to settle the meaning of terms is of the first
importance. To inquire what ancient writers intended by the words
which they employ, and whether such as have been usually regarded as
synonymous are really so, may often furnish us with a clue to some
useful or interesting truth; and not seldom enable us to rescue their
reputation from much of the censure which has been inconsiderately
cast upon it. Because they did not know every thing, or so much as
we do, we are too apt to think that they knew nothing. That they
fell into very considerable errors, especially in subjects connected
with Natural History, cannot be denied; but then it ought to be
considered that they possessed scarcely any of those advantages by
which we are enabled to penetrate into nature's secrets. The want of
the microscope alone was an effectual bar to their progress in this
branch of science. Yet, in some instances, when they took a general
view of a subject, they appear to have had very correct ideas. This
observation particularly applies to the philosopher of Stagyra, whose
mighty mind and lyncean eye, in spite of those mists of prejudice
and fable that enveloped the age in which he lived, enabled him in
part to pierce through the gloom, and comprehend and behold the
fair outline that gives symmetry, grace and beauty to the whole of
nature's form, though he mistook, or was not able to trace out, her
less prominent features and minor lineaments.
* * * * *
It is now time to return from this long digression, which however is
closely connected with the subject of this letter, to the point from
which I deviated. Taking my leave of the disgusting animals which
gave rise to it, I proceed to call your attention to another of our
pygmy tormentors, (_Pulex irritans_,) which, in the opinion of some,
seems to have been regarded as an agreeable rather than a repulsive
object. "Dear miss," said a lively old lady to a friend of mine,
(who had the misfortune to be confined to her bed by a broken limb,
and was complaining that the fleas tormented her,) "don't you like
_fleas_? Well, I think they are the prettiest little merry things in
the world.--I never saw a dull flea in all my life." The celebrated
Willughby kept a favourite flea, which used at stated times to be
admitted to suck the palm of his hand; and enjoyed this privilege
for three months, when the cold killed it. And Dr. Townson, from
the encomium which he bestows upon these vigilant little vaulters,
as supplying the place of an alarum and driving us from the bed of
sloth, should seem to have regarded them with feelings much more
complacent than those of Dr. Clarke and his friends, when their hopes
of passing "one night free from the attacks of vermin" were changed
into despair by the information of the laughing Sheik, that "the
king of the fleas held his court at Tiberias:" or than those of MM.
Lewis and Clarke, who found them more tormenting than all the other
plagues of the Missouri country, where they sometimes compel even the
natives to shift their quarters. If you unhappily view them in this
unfavourable light, and have found ordinary methods unavailing for
ridding yourself of these unbidden guests; I can furnish you with a
_probatum est_ recipe, which the first-mentioned traveller tells us
the Hungarian shepherds (who seem to have been stupidly insensible to
their value as alarums) find completely effectual to put to flight
these insects and their neighbours the lice. This is not, as you may
be tempted to think, by a remarkable attention to cleanliness.--Quite
the reverse.--They grease their linen with hog's lard, and thus
render themselves disgusting even to fleas! If this does not satisfy,
I have another recipe in store for you. You may shoot at them with
a cannon, as report says did Christina queen of Sweden, whose piece
of artillery, of Lilliputian calibre, which was employed in this
warfare, is still exhibited in the arsenal of Stockholm[144]. But,
seriously, if you wish for an effectual remedy, that prescribed by
old Tusser, in the following lines, will answer your purpose:
"While wormwood hath seed, get a handfull or twaine,
To save against March, to make flea to refraine:
Where chamber is sweeped, and wormwood is strown,
No flea for his life dare abide to be known."
To this genus belongs an insect, abundant in the West Indies and
South America, the attacks of which are infinitely more serious
than those of the common flea. You will readily conjecture that I
am speaking of the celebrated _Chigoe_ or _Jiggers_, called also
_Nigua_, _Tungua_, and _Pique_[145], (_Pulex penetrans_,) one of the
direst personal pests with which the sins of man have been visited.
All disputes concerning the genus of this insect would have been
settled long before Swartz's time, (who first gave a satisfactory
description and figure of it, proving it to be a _Pulex_, as has been
observed above[146],) had success attended the patriotic attempt
of the Capuchin friar recorded by Walton in his _History of St.
Domingo_, who brought away with him from that island a colony of
these animals, which he permitted to establish themselves in one
of his feet; but unfortunately for himself, and for science, the
foot intrusted with the precious deposit mortified, was obliged to
be amputated, and with all its inhabitants committed to the waves.
According to Ulloa, and his opinion is confirmed by Jussieu, there
are two South American species of this mischievous insect. It is
described as generally attacking the feet and legs[147], getting,
without being felt, between the skin and the flesh, usually under
the nails of the toes, where it nidificates and lays its eggs;
and if timely attention be not paid to it, which, as it occasions
no other uneasiness than itching, (the sensation at first, I am
assured, is rather pleasing than otherwise,) is sometimes neglected,
it multiplies to such a degree, as to be attended by the most fatal
consequences, often, as in the above instance, rendering amputation
necessary, and sometimes causing death[148]. The female slaves in
the West Indies are frequently employed to extract these pests,
which they do with uncommon dexterity. Yarico, so celebrated in
prose and verse, performed this kind office for honest Ligon, who
says, in his _History of Barbadoes_, "I have had ten (Chegoes) taken
out of my feet in a morning, by the most unfortunate Yarico, an
Indian woman[149]." Humboldt observes, "that the whites born in the
torrid zone walk barefoot with impunity in the same apartment where
a European recently landed is exposed to the attack of this animal.
The _Nigua_ therefore distinguishes what the most delicate chemical
analysis could not distinguish, the cellular membrane and blood of a
European from those of a creole white[150]."
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