DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 313 



wasps as diuretics ; lady-birds for the colic and measles ; 

 the cockchafer for the bite of a jiad dog- and the plague ; 

 and ants and their acid I should have loudly praised as 

 incomparable against leprosy and deafness, as strength- 

 ening- the memory, and giving vigour and animation to 

 the whole bodily frame''. In short, I could have easily 

 added to the miserably meager list of modern pharma- 

 copoeias, a catalogue of approved insect-remedies for 

 every disease and evil 



" that flesh is heir to !V 



But these good times are long gone by. You would, 

 I fear, laugh at my prescriptions notwithstanding the 

 great authorities I could cite in their favour; and even 

 doubt the efficacy of a more modern specific for tooth- 

 ache, promulgated by a learned Italian professor'', who 

 assures us that a finger once imbued with the juices of 

 Ciirculio aniiodontalgicus (a name enough to give one 

 the tooth-ache to pronounce it) will retain its power of 

 curing this disease for a twelvemonth ! I must content 

 myself, therefore, with expatiating on the virtues of the 

 very few insects to which the sons of Hippocrates and 

 Galen now deign to have recourse. At the same time 

 I cannot help observing that their proscription of the 

 remainder may have been too indiscriminate. Man- 

 kind are apt to run from one exti-eme to the other. 

 From having ascribed too much efficacy to insect-reme- 

 dies, we may now ascribe too little. Many insects emit 

 very powerful odours, and some produce extraordinary 



* For this list of remedies, see Lesser L, ii. 171-3. 

 '' G^rbi. The same virtues have been ascribed to Cocdnella septcm- 

 puuctata, L. 



