LETTEH Vll. 



INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



INDIRECT INJURIES CONTINUED. 



i- o look at a locust in a cabinet of insects, you would 

 not, at first sight, deem it capable of being the 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 be- 

 yond the proportion of its bulk. The locusts so cele- 

 brated in history must surely be of the Indian kind 

 mentioned by Pliny, which were three feet in length, 

 with legs so strong that the women used them as saws. 

 1 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 attri- 

 butes of this widely dreaded insect-destroyer ^ ; but 

 of which in the insect before me I discern little or no 

 likeness ? " Yet, although this animal be not very tre- 

 mendous 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 peculiarly fitted and 



' Bochart, Hicrozoic, P. ii. 1, iv, c, 5. 475. 



