INSECTS AND CIVILIZATION 



important economic factor in forming habitable places 

 for man, and in making the crust of the globe a suitable 

 sphere for his development into the civilized being who 

 now dominates it. 



Take an example, or perhaps one should say a sugges- 

 tion, of what may have been the function of insects in 

 this great plan persistent throughout the ages. The 

 action of insects in fertilizing plants is not only im- 

 portant but in many cases vital. Has it not always 

 been so? One may easily infer that the primeval for- 

 ests, and the exuberant vegetation of the plains, swamps, 

 river-banks, and lake shores of ancient epochs, may have 

 been indebted to insects for their fertilization, and so for 

 their growth and perpetuation. Out of this vegetation — 

 the flora of the Carboniferous era especially — have been 

 formed our coal measures. Thus reasoning, one must 

 score largely to the credit of insects as contributing to 

 civilization all those elements that are dependent upon 

 coal and the products of coal as fuel and as a generator 

 of force. It may seem a far cry from the great human 

 industries which characterize modern civilization — from 

 transit and traffic on land and on sea; from human 

 homes and their comfort and luxuries — to the insect 

 orders of the paleontologist. But one may catch dim 

 echoes of the voice, if he will put his ear close enough to 

 nature. 



Not to go so far back, and with methods of plant 

 fertilization still in view, we may think of the world's 

 indebtedness to insects for a large part of its present 

 flora. Even upon the basis of what is surely known 

 and what justly may be inferred, the commercial woods, 

 the fruits of orchards and vineyards, the vegetable foods, 

 the vegetable medicines, the perfumes, the wholesome- 



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