INSECTS AS REMEDIES. 161 



of diet be viewed with abhorrence and disgust, and that 

 forsooth, by coarse shamble-fed animals, living upon stall-fed 

 oxen and sty-fed swine ? 



Insects once occupied a place as important as herbs in the 

 list of sovereign remedies. To take a Wood-louse or Mille- 

 pedes, perhaps, alive, and conveniently self-rolled for the occa- 

 sion, was as common as to take a vegetable pill. Five Gnats 

 were administered with as much confidence as three grains of 

 calomel. In an alarming fit of cholic, no visitor with a dram 

 of peppermint, could have been more cordially welcomed or 

 swallowed than a Lady-bird. Fly-water was eye-water, and 

 even that water-shunning monster, Hydrophobia, was urged to 

 lap aqua pura by the administration of a dry Cockchafer. 

 Like other dogs and drugs, these have all had their day in the 

 world of medicine, but have left behind them that salutary 

 biter, the Cantharides or Spanish Fly of Europe, and the 

 Meloe CUcorei, used by the natives of the Celestial Empire for 

 the same purpose of drawing off terrestrial humours. 



When from inward remedies and regalements, we turn to 

 outward adornments, we are instantly reminded of our obli- 

 gations to those spinning millions, 



" That in their green shops weave the smooth-haired silk." 



But stay ! are we indeed debtors to those busy insect-artificers, 

 who, by furnishing material for velvet robes and silken gowns 

 and silken banners, have ministered so largely to the pride of 

 the eye and the pride of life? May not the Silk-worm be 



