insect injury hy the use of phenol prejiarations. 335 



The results shoAved that the absorbed substance or sub- 

 stances were so small in quantity that, though (in the 

 most extreme cases) perceptible to taste and smell before 

 cooking, the quantity, even in these instances, was not 

 sufhcient to make the roots prejudicial to the health ; and 

 with regard to the taste, I may mention some cabbages 

 similarly treated, and given to my gardener and his wife 

 for special observation, were pronounced everything that 

 could be wished. 



I cannot help feeling a hope that this exjieriment may 

 be followed up into something of general utility. 



In all cases I have found the " soluble phenyle " bene- 

 ficial to vegetation ; and, looking at the degree to which 

 larval health is affected in many cases merely by the diffe- 

 rence in the Avatery or condensed state of the sap, and the 

 general refusal of larvae to feed at all unless the food is to 

 their taste, it appears that a fluid so thoroughly distasteful 

 as this — not simply soddening from the outside but circu- 

 lated by the vegetative action exactly in the young and 

 grooving tissues most liable to insect attack — might be of 

 much service at hardly appreciable cost, except the Avages 

 of a labourer for occasional application, and might even 

 be brought to bear on the Phylloxera. 



