WHOLE VOL. APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY — HOWARD 63 



ous insects or fed to them, would act as a propagator of disease was, 

 of course, erroneous ; and his contention about the Hessian fly, al- 

 though strenuously and plausibly argued, has not been adopted. He 

 tried to show that the insect was present in this country before the 

 War of the Revolution, that it did not appear in Germany until 1857, 

 and that therefore it was of American origin. The conclusion reached 

 by Packard in 1883 (Third Report of the United States Entomological 

 Commission, page 234), that the insect was probably introduced into 

 this country from southern and southeastern Europe, is the one 

 generally held today. 



Something About Insecticides 



Down to the time of the beginning of the use of arsenical poisons 

 for gnawing insects and diluted kerosene emulsions for sucking in- 

 sects, the effective insecticides used were limited in number and after 

 all were not especially efifective. Decoctions of quassia chips, helle- 

 bore, limewater and mixtures of ashes and several other things, 

 together with what seems to be an early use of nicotine fumes and 

 tobacco water for plant lice, comprised about all. The charlatan was 

 present in the old days, and secret nostrums and utterly ineffective 

 things were recommended and sold, and there is no more interesting 

 reading than the fulminations of B. D. Walsh against things of that 

 kind. He had an extraordinary command of language, and poured 

 forth his wrath unstintingly and in wonderful phraseology on char- 

 latanistic claims. 



In fact, the advertising of quack remedies went to such an extent 

 that the real entomologists were inclined to frown down the whole idea 

 of chemical insecticides. So strong was this feeling that it was ex- 

 pressed very forcibly in the opening editorial in the first number of The 

 Practical Entomologist (October 30, 1865). In view of the enormous 

 use of insecticides of great value at the present time, it is worth 

 while to quote two sentences from this editorial : 



The agricultural journals have from year to year, presented through their 

 columns, various recipes, as preventive of the attacks, or destructive to the life, 

 of the " curculio," the " apple-moth," the " squash-bug," etc. The proposed de- 

 coctions and washes we are well satisfied, in the majority of instances, are as 

 useless in application as they are ridiculous in composition, and if the work of 

 destroying insects is to be accomplished satisfactorily, we feel confident that it 

 will have to be the result of no chemical preparations, but of simple means, 

 directed by a knowledge of the history and habits of the depredators. 



To find that these sentences were written nearly 65 years ago by 

 some good entomologist is especially significant in view of the fact 



