ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. XX.MX 



Society, April 12, 1848, of the death of nine pigs belonging to 

 Mr. Bury, of Hanslope Park, Bucks, a few hours after eating 

 porridge made of meal from vetches, bought at Liverpool. ' Pro- 

 fessor Way remarked, that the poisonous effect was produced either 

 jrom mineral poison mixed with the meal, or in consequence of 

 some poisonous quality chemically engendered in the meal itself. 

 He was inclined to think, from such a result in many vegetable 

 substances, that the latter was the case.' Now I would beg to 

 suggest, whether it is not more probable that this poisonous qua- 

 lity in the meal (for I do not think that any mere extrication of 

 gas, as Professor Sewell, of the Royal Veterinary College, sug- 

 gested, could produce a fatal result so immediate, and on the 

 whole number of pigs) was caused by its having been ground 

 from vetches infested with some Briichus, in its various states of 

 larva, pupa and imago. I am not aware that English vetches 

 (including under this term lentils and tares), which indeed are not 

 very extensively cultivated in this country, are materially affected 

 by any insect ; but Mr. Curtis, in his late excellent ' Essay on Pea 

 and Bean Insects,' in the 7th volume of the Journal of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society, informs us, in a note quoted from the En- 

 cyclopedic Methodique, that the lentils and vetches of France are 

 infested by BrucJius granar'ius, as we may reasonably infer are 

 those of other continental countries, or with allied species. Is it 

 not then probable, that as considerable quantities of foreign lentils 

 were imported last year into Liverpool from Egypt, Prussia, &c. 

 that the poisonous meal in question might have been ground from 

 the refuse screenings of this grain, and thus have contained a 

 sufficient quantity of Bruchus granarius in its diflferent states to 

 impart noxious properties to it ? 



" This supposition is rendered probable by three facts, — first, 

 that, as recorded by Amoreux, and quoted in the 'Introduction 

 to Entomology,' individuals in France seem to have been poisonc'd 

 by eating Bruchus granarius in worm-eaten peas ; second, that, as 

 stated by Mr. Curtis in the 7th volume of the Journal of the Royal 

 Society of Agriculture, the health of a cabman's horses, fed on 

 Sicilian beans much worm-eaten, was found to be very much 

 deranged; and third, that two fat pigs of Mr. H. Wilson, of 

 Stovvlangtoft Hall, as he stated to the Royal Agricultural So- 

 ciety, were both destroyed by being fed for a week on meal 

 ground from damaged rice, purchased at a cheap rate, which it is 

 highly probable abounded in Calandra onjzce, with the known 

 noxious properties of wliich Bruchus granarius may not unreason- 

 ably be supposed to partake." 



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