WINTER MEETING. 235- 



It is the secret of the beauty of much of the East Indian, Chinese and 

 Japanese bric-a-bac and ornaments for the adornment of v/omen. 

 Mingled with a email proportion of cochineal some varieties of oriental 

 lac yield a tine dye. It has homelier uses, too, such as the formation 

 of grind stones when, combined with a certain sort of sand. An ink 

 of peculiar properties is also made from lac, with the addition of lamp 

 black and borax. 



In China another and more rare species of scale insect excretes a 

 very delicate white wax, called by the natives pe la; mingled with oil 

 it forms a brilliant illuminant. It is also employed in the cure of various 

 diseases, and is said to be very efBcacious in giving assurance to timid 

 orators, who swallow a lump of it when about to i"peak in public. Its 

 use is, however, strictly reserved for royalty and the highest mandarins. 



America has several species of laccoccids, which may, in time, be 

 placed under contribution to the luxury or convenience of man. In 

 the late Prof. Riley'j^ report as U. S. entomologist for 1883, he mentions 

 two lac insects of the southwestern states as meriting attention and 

 experiment. One of these occurs on the Creosote plant {Larrea Mexi- 

 cawa ), and another on a species of Mimosa; neither plant at present 

 of any economic value ; also a wax secreting insect on certain Cali- 

 fornia oaks. It was his (tpiuion that all of these insects might, by cul- 

 tivation, be made to yield valuable and merchantable products. 



In Chili there is produced by the bites of a small caterpillar, on a 

 species of Origanum, such quantities of a peculiar resin, that it is largely 

 used in ship building in the place of tar. 



Mr. Charles Dudley Warner, in his "Mexican notes," asserts that 

 brilliant and durable lacquer which makes the "Uruapen" ware so 

 unique and so famous, is compounded mainly from the bodies of tree 

 caterpillar. This "worm paste," the exact secret of which has not 

 been divulged, is sold for two dollars per pound, but is not allowed to 

 become an article of export from the province. 



Another group of insects to which writers are especially indebted 

 are some of the gall-making cynips. "Gall nuts" and "Aleppo galls" 

 brought to Western Europe and America from the town of Aleppo and 

 also from Smyrna and Trieste have long furnished black dyes of tine 

 quality and formed the principal ingredient of all first-class writing inks. 



In olden times, when the more nauseous the dose the more effica- 

 cious it was considered to be, insects had a very prominent place in 

 the pharmacopeia of every physician. To quote from Kirby : "Pow- 

 der of silk worms was the leading remedy for vertigo and convulsions ; 

 millepedes for jaundice ; earwigs to strengthen the nerves ( ! ) ; fly-water 

 for disorders of the eyes ; ticks for erysipelas ; powdered gnats for de- 



