ijo MEMOIR ON ANIMAL COTTON. 



No. XVIII. 



TRANSLATION. 



A Memoir on Animal Cotton, or the Infe£i Fly-Carrier. 

 By M. Baudry des Lozieres, MetJiber of feveral 

 Academies, and Founder of the Society of Sciences and 

 Arts, at Cape Francois. 



Gentlemen, 



B' 



EFORE I enter upon the fubjedl of this 

 memoir, I ought to pay the tribute of 

 praife which is due to your ufeful labours. But the 

 ftyle of eulogy is ill fuited to the plainnefs of an Ame- 

 rican farmer, and while you are conftantly employed in 

 defcrving praife, you cannot fpare time to hear it. 



I am now going to communicate to you, with fome 

 obferv'ations upon it, a fa£t of entomology which 1 have 

 myfelf witnefled during my refiJence at St. Domingo, 

 and which, if I am not miliaken, deferves your greateft 

 attention, becaufe it may introduce a new branch of 

 commerce with the Weft India colonies, and render very 

 ufeful an animal which has hitherto been known only by 

 the mifchief which it occafions. 



Every inhabitant of the Weft Indies knows and dreads 

 the greedy worm which devours their indigo and caflada 

 plantations. But people have hitherto turned their atten- 

 tion more to the means of deftroying it than of render- 

 ing it ufeful. It is indeed very natural to endeavour to 

 deftroy our enemy, but to compel him to be of fervice 

 to us is by far the greater triumph. 



hi 



