Oct. 1, 1868.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



22!! 



THE PARIS EXHIBITION OF INSECTS. 



T)EADERS of Science-Gossip will doubtless 

 -*-*' recollect that in the July number, at p. 158, it 

 was announced that au exhibition of useful and 

 destructive insects would take place in Paris during 

 the month of August ; and it has occurred to the 

 writer that, possibly, some few notes of a visit to 

 the place may not be altogether without interest. 

 The general arrangement and mode of classifications 

 indicated in the article referred to were closely 

 followed, so that a repetition of the particulars will 

 be unnecessary; I would therefore merely now 

 draw attention to the circumstance that, inasmuch 

 as the exhibition was planned and carried out by the 

 Societe dTnsectologie Agricole, special prominence 

 was given to those particular branches of entomo- 

 logical study which had an immediate bearing upon 

 the objects for which that society was established. 

 The exhibition took place in the Palais de l'ln- 

 dustrie, the spacious north-western gallery of which 

 was partitioned off so as to form seven rooms, in six 

 of which the various objects were displayed, whilst 

 the seventh was fitted up as a lecture-room, in 

 which conferences were held twice a week upon 

 topics duly announced. Following the order laid 

 down in the catalogue, my first [attention was given 

 to Class I., comprising silk -producing insects, with 

 their products, methods of culture, diseases, and 

 means of cure. Here were living silkworms of the 

 ordinary kind in every stage of growth, contentedly 

 feeding upon ample supplies of fresh mulberry- 

 leaves, under the guard and protection of that ever- 

 present personage the Sergent de Ville. Near to 

 these a number of newly-spun cocoons were seen 

 attached to frames of various kinds, and upon the 

 same table were many paper trays containing moths 

 and eggs. Nor were the different varieties of the 

 common silkworm alone represented ; specimens 

 of Bombyx Cynthia, Bombyx Yama-mai, &c, were 

 also there in various stages of growth, together with 

 their cocoons and silk, both in the raw and manu- 

 factured state ; and a very fine collection of cocoons 

 of various silk-spinning worms from South America, 

 Africa, Madagascar, and the East Indies attracted 

 much attention. 



Of apparatus for winding and preparing the silk, 

 and testing its quality and strength, there was a 

 good show, and the remaining space devoted to this 

 class was occupied by examples of the effects of the 

 diseases to which silkworms are liable, by diagrams 

 and drawings, and by memoirs upon sericulture, 

 both printed and in manuscript. 



The next three rooms were entirely devoted to 

 Class II. (Apiculture), and here were hives and 

 their accessories of every material and shape, ap- 

 paratus of all kinds for the refining and preparation 

 of honey and wax, and indeed every other requisite 

 of the bee-master. In the section assigned to the 



products of bees I found wax and honey of every 

 quality, and in all stages of refinement ; also a very 

 tempting display of confectionery and chocolate in 

 the manufacture of which honey had been employed, 

 to say nothing of hydromels and the far-famed pain 

 d'e'pice from Chartres and Dijon, so well known and 

 appreciated by continental lovers of gingerbread. 

 To give anything like a complete description of the 

 contents of the room adjoining would obviously 

 require space far exceeding the limit of a single 

 paper, seeing that almost all insects not comprised 

 in the two classes already noticed were to be found 

 there. In the four remaining classes of useful in- 

 sects were specimens, both alive and dead, of 

 several varieties of cochineal and other insects used 

 in dyeing, also of such as are employed in medicine, 

 with samples of cantharidine in the sublimated and 

 crystalline forms. Amongst those used as food 

 there were certainly some which were quite new to 

 me as articles of diet ; but since, according to the 

 programme, "Crustacea and Arachnida were to be 

 considered as belonging to the same great zoological 

 division as insects," here were also found crabs, 

 crawfish, lobsters, &c. ; and much valuable informa- 

 tion was furnished as to the best means for then- 

 propagation and culture. The sixth and last class 

 in this division contained such iusects as are used 

 for purposes of ornament ; and many ingenious 

 devices were shown, in which the iridescent elytra 

 of beetles, and in some instances entire butterflies, 

 were mounted as articles of jewellery, or were in- 

 troduced with great taste and skill into the various 

 productions of the fashionable modiste. 



The second division of the exhibition {insects 

 misibles) was subdivided into ten classes, in which 

 the insects were arranged according to their habits, 

 instead of in the scientific order of their genera, a 

 plan admirably designed for practically useful 

 purposes. Here, at a glance, a person interested 

 in the cultivation of a particular plant might see 

 specimens of every insect known to attack it, and 

 not only were they shown in their perfect form and 

 of both sexes, but also in the larva and the pupa 

 states, with specimens of their eggs, and of dried 

 portions of plants which had suffered from them. 

 To each series labels were affixed, upon which were 

 written the names of the insects, in Latin and in 

 French, with brief notices of their ravages, and in 

 some instances also the means of their extermination. 

 One exhibitor in this department showed a collec- 

 tion so remarkable for its completeness and the care 

 bestowed upon it that I cannot pass it by without 

 a special reference ; it consisted, in all, of eighteen 

 glass-covered trays, the first five of which contained 

 the destroyers of various kinds of fruit, arranged as 

 described above. In the next three were those 

 injurious to potherbs and edible fungi, and in the 

 three following were the ravagers of meadow and 

 field produce, and of the leaves of forest trees. Two 



