414 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
* But we bid each take notice,—with the rest 
Of all our faithful subjects,—that the best, 
And brightest things our kingdom could supply 
Failed when God’s snow came down with them to vie: 
“So let our land the golden lesson learn 
That for our purest pleasures we must turn 
To heavenly sources: where, we humbly know 
Our * sins of scarlet are made white as snow.’ ” 
INSECTS. 
SEVERAL Insects which are edible (themselves, or their products), 
whilst exercising certain curative virtues, may be briefly con- 
sidered here. A more detailed attention has been already 
devoted to them in Animal Simples. ‘‘ These ye may eat,” 
said Moses the wise lawgiver to the Israelites of old, “ the locust 
after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle 
aiter his kind, and the grasshopper alter his kind.” 
The common Honey Bee, besides affording the mel which 
confers its name (Apis mellifica), supplies, by its sting-venom, 
in the Hum, or bee-beer of cottagers, a medicament of potential 
excellence (see Honey). Likewise our well-known Wasp (Vespa) 
can furnish, as Vincent Holt graphically tells, an equally 
delicious savoury to that of the Honey bee; “the saccharine 
fluid with which wasps feed their infant grubs is entirely 
composed of vegetable juices drawn from ripe fruits, and 
flowers. Let us then welcome among our choice dishes wasp 
grubs baked in the comb.” 
Caterpillars,” says M. Dagin, a French entomologist, who has 
recently been making exhaustive experiments with regard to 
esculent insects, “having personally eaten some hundreds of 
species, raw, broiled, boiled, fried, roasted, and hashed, I find 
most of these pleasant to taste, light, and digestible.” From 
some he has concocted 
‘‘ A capital stew, with spices and sherry,— 
Like the Boniface Mayor of St. Edmonsbury.” 
in Praed’s Poem. 
But the despised Cockroach, or Black Beetle, of our kitchens 
is what M. Dagin waxes most enthusiastic over. ‘Pounded in 
a mortar, put through a sieve, and poured into beef stock, these 
creatures make a soup preferable to bisque.” Nevertheless, 4 
Chinese proverb runs to the effect, “ If your stomach is delicate, 
