112 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



by Dr. Barton in the fifth volume of The American PJiilosophkal Trans- 

 actions. In the autumn and winter of the year 1790 an extensive 

 mortahty was produced amongst those who had partaken of the honey 

 collected in the neighborhood of Philadelphia. The attention of the 

 American government was excited by the general distress, a minute inquiry 

 into the cause of the mortality ensued, and it was satisfactorily ascertained 

 that the honey had been chiefly extracted from the flowers of Kalmia 

 latifolia. Though the honey mentioned in Xenophon's well-known 

 account of the effect of a particular sort eaten by the Grecian soldiers 

 during the celebrated retreat after the death of the younger Cyrus did not 

 operate fatally, it gave those of the soldiers who ate it in small quantities 

 the appearance of being intoxicated, and such as partook of it freely, of 

 being mad or about to die, numbers lying on the ground as if after a defeat. 

 A specimen of this honey, which still retains its deleterious properties, was 

 sent to the Zoological Society in 1834, from Trebizond on the Black Sea, 

 by Keith E. Abbott, Esq.^ 



Amongst other direct injuries occasioned by these creatures, perhaps, 

 out of regard for the ladies, I ought to notice the alarm which many of 

 them occasion to the loveliest part of the creation. When some females 

 retire from society to avoid a wasp, others faint at the sight of a spider, 

 and others, again, die with terror if they hear a death-watch : these 

 groundless apprehensions and superstitious alarms are as much real evils 

 to those who feel them as if they were well founded. But having already 

 adverted to this subject, I shall here only quote the observation of a wise 

 man, that " Fear is a betraying of the succors that reason offereth."^ 

 The best remedy, therefore, in such cases, is going to reason for succor. 

 In a iev^ instances, indeed, the evil may take root in a constitutional de- 

 fect, for there seems to be some foundation for the doctrine of natural 

 antipathies: but, generally speaking, in consequence of the increased 

 attention to Natural History, the reign of imaginary evils is ceasing amongst 

 us, and what used to shake the stout hearts of our superstitious ancestors 

 with anile terrors is become a subject of interesting inquiry to their better- 

 informed descendants, even of the weaker sex. 



And now, my friend, I flatter myself you feel disposed to own the truth 

 of my position, however it might startle you at first, and will candidly 

 acknowledge that I have proved the empire of these despised insects over 

 man's person ; and that, mstead of being a race of insignificant creatures, 

 which we may safely overlook, as having no concern with, they may, in 

 the hands of Divine Providence, and even of man, become to us fearful 

 instruments of evil and of punishment. I shall next endeavor to give you 

 some idea of the indirect injuries which they occasion us by attacking our 

 property, or interfering with our pleasure or comfort — but this must be the 

 subject of another letter. 



I am, (fee. 



' Xenophon, Anabas. 1. iv. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond, i. proc. xixi. 

 2 Wisd. xvii. 12. 



