USES OF WASPS AND NESTS 167 



But though modern scepticism may have 

 overthrown the poetic justice done the 

 wasps by our predecessors, it is good 

 to remember that once the. oil of wasps 

 was recommended by a surgical writer in 

 the seventeenth century as being a cure 

 for their stings ; and that another recom- 

 mended a poultice made of wasps. 



A cynical modern writer, who may have 

 good cause to know, says he has " heard 

 of cures, but never experienced one." 



That the sting of the wasp is effective 

 internally as well as externally, is attested 

 by the following sad statement, — 



" Allen's wife drank a wasp and fell 

 down and dyed." 



The chronicle does not say whether the 

 lamented Allen's wife drank it on purpose 

 or accidentally. 



The worst known case of a malady 

 caused by wasps is that of the Emperor . 

 Vespasian, who had a wasp's nest in his 

 nose. 



