The Buprestis-hunting Cerceris 



mensely superior to our own pickling-pro- 

 cesses is that of the Wasp ! We salt, or 

 smoke, or tin foodstuffs which, remain fit to 

 eat, it is true, but which are very far indeed 

 from retaining the quahties which they pos- 

 sessed when fresh. Tins of sardines soaked 

 In oil, Dutch smoked herrings, codfish re- 

 duced to hard slabs by salt and sun: which of 

 these can compare with the same fish sup- 

 plied to the cook, so to speak, all alive and 

 kicking? In the case of flesh-meat, things 

 are even worse. Apart from salting and cu- 

 ring, we have nothing that can keep a piece of 

 meat fit for consumption for even a fairly 

 short period. 



Nowadays, after a thousand fruitless at- 

 tempts in the most varied directions, we equip 

 special ships at great cost; and these ships, 

 fitted with a powerful refrigerating-plant, 

 bring us the flesh of sheep and oxen slaught- 

 ered in the South-American pampas, frozen 

 and preserved from decomposition by the in- 

 tense cold. How much more excellent is the 

 Cerceris' method, so swift, so Inexpensive and 

 so efficacious! What lessons can we not 

 learn from her transcendental chemistry! 

 With an imperceptible drop of her poison- 

 fluid, she straightway renders her prey incor- 

 15 



