BACTERIA AS DESTROYERS OF INSECTS. 93 



out, then would think she was suffocating, would open the windows 

 and put on a light dress. . . . She ceased to conceal her contempt 

 for any thing or any person, and frequently assumed to express sin- 

 gular opinions condemning what is approved, and approving wrong 

 or immoral things. Must this misery last always? Will she never 

 escape it ? Yet she was worth as much as those who lived happily, 

 and she execrated the injustice of God. She rested her head on the 

 walls to cry. She envied those who led tumultuous existences, and 

 longed for nights of masking and insolent pleasures with all the 

 distractions she knew nothing of and which they could give. . . . 

 She grew pale and had beatings of the heart. . . . On some days 

 she would indulge in a feverish profusion of boasting. ... To these 

 indulgences succeeded immediately spells of torpor in which she would 

 rest without speaking, without stirring. She bought a Gothic prie- 

 Dieu, and spent fourteen francs in one month for lemons to clean her 

 nails. She selected the handsomest of his scarfs from Lheureux's, tied 

 it over her wrapper, and, having closed the shutters, lay in this 

 garb upon the sofa with a book in her hand. She thought she would 

 learn Italian, and bought dictionaries, a grammar, and white paper. 

 She tried serious reading, history, philosophy. . . . She had fits when 

 she could be readily pushed to extravagances. She insisted one day 

 to her husband that she could drink half a glass of brandy, and, when 

 Charles was foolish enough to challenge her to do it, she swallowed the 

 brandy to the last drop." 



We seem to be far away from the demoniacs, but we are not. We 

 can observe all the transitions between light hysteria like that of Ma- 

 dame Bovary and grave hysteria like that of the patients in the Salpe- 

 triere. All the symptoms of the light form exist likewise in the grave 

 form, but they are stronger and more durable. We need not return to 

 them. Other symptoms, special to grave hysteria and serving to char- 

 acterize it, are anaesthesia, total or partial, convulsive attacks, and de- 

 lirium. 



* 



BACTERIA AS DESTROYERS OF INSECTS. 

 Bt e. eay lankestee, f. e. s. 



WHAT is the good of a knowledge of microscopic creatures ? 

 What is the good of prying into the anatomy of insects ? It 

 is all very well as an amusement, but serious persons can not be ex- 

 pected to assent to the devotion of endowments or state funds to such 

 trivial purposes. Chemistry, geology, electricity, if you please, have 

 their solid commercial value, but biology is an amusement for children 

 and old gentlemen." Such is the opinion of many a " practical man," 

 ignorant and short-sighted as the genus invariably proves itself. 



