LETTER Vil. 



INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



INDIRECT INJURIES CONTINUED. 



1 O look at a looist in a cabinet of insects, you would 

 not, at first siglit, deem it capable of being tlie source of 

 so much evil to mankind as stands on record against it. 

 " This is but a small creature," you would say, " and 

 the mischief which it causes cannot be far beyond the 

 proportion of its bulk. The locusts so celebrated in 

 history must surely be of the Indian kind mentioned 

 by Pliny, wliicli were three feet in length, with legs so 

 strong that the women used them as saws. I see indeed 

 some resemblance to the horse's head, but where are the 

 eyes of the elephant, the neck of the bull, the horns of 

 the stag, the chest of the lion, the belly of the scorpion, 

 the wings of the eagle, the thighs of the camel, the legs 

 of the ostrich, and the tail of the serpent, all of which 

 the Arabians mention as attributes of this widely dreaded 

 insect destroyer ^ ; but of which in the insect before me 

 I discern little or no likeness ?" Yet, although this ani- 

 mal be not very tremendous for its size, nor very terrific 

 in its appearance, it is the very same whose ravages have 

 been the theme of naturalists and historians in all ages, 

 and upon a close examination you will find it to be pe- 

 culiarly fitted and iurnished for the execution of its 



* IBocliart, Ilicrozoic. V. ii, I. iv. c. 5. 47i). 



