Entomological Society, 233 



knowledge of the habits of insects to the agriculturist, the horti- 

 culturist, and all who are directly engaged in the cultivation of the 

 soil, in reference to the first great requisite of life, the production 

 of food. The value of Entomology, in this respect, is already gene- 

 rally acknowledged ; but there are other departments of science in 

 which its value is yet unknown, or only just beginning to be appre- 

 ciated; and yet even in these it may hereafter prove highly im- 

 portant. 



The great object of all scientific research is the welfare and im- 

 provement of mankind. All inquiries that tend to this object, how- 

 ever remotely connected with it, deserve the attention of the phi- 

 losopher and the philanthropist. Observations on the habits and 

 economy of insects, independently of their immediate connexion 

 with the cultivation of the soil, are of high importance with refer- 

 ence to our arts and manufactures ; and are valuable, not merely to 

 individual enterprise, but to the commerce of the whole world. The 

 dye, the wax, the silk contribute to the riches and comfort of thou- 

 sands, and even supply means of existence to tens of thousands ; 

 yet the value and most successful cultivation of these can only be 

 improved by attention to the habits of the diminutive creatures by 

 which they are produced. In like manner, attention to the habits, and 

 experiments on the functions of these " miniatures of creation, " be- 

 come of immense importance when the knowledge of the entomologist 

 is combined, on the one hand, with the skill of the analytic chemist, 

 in watching the processes, or in testing the products of their little 

 vital laboratories ; or, on the other hand, is employed in assisting to 

 guide the diminutive scalpel, or the eye of the comparative anato- 

 mist and physiologist, in his microscopic investigations of struc- 

 ture or function. Entomological knowledge, unapplied and alone, 

 like many other pursuits, may perhaps be of little absolute value ; 

 but when combined with that of the chemist, the physiologist or 

 the anatomist, it leads to a result of the highest possible importance 

 to mankind, — the right understanding of the great laws of life in 

 health and disease, which alone enables the physician to apply his 

 experience with success in restoring to us that which is more valuable 

 than all the comfort that riches or luxury can contribute. 



MM. Edwards and Dumas' paper on the production of wax is in 

 striking accordance with these views. 



A theory has been promulgated by the justly celebrated Professor 

 of Chemistry at Giessen, Dr. Liebig, that the constituents of the food 

 of animals, when taken into the system, during the processes of 

 digestion and nutrition, undergo a peculiar modification, the result 

 of which is the production of substances, through the agency of 

 special organs, totally different in the proportions of their chemical 

 constituents from those of the materials from which they have been 

 derived. A proof of this change was pointed out by Liebig as 

 afforded in the production of wax by the honey-bee, as in the ex- 

 periments of Huber, recently confirmed by Gundlach, in which the 

 bees were fed only on sugar. But it was objected by many distin- 

 guished chemists that there was no ^ivQCi proof in these experiments ; 



