﻿or THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 13- 



ganic world* and are found naturally in many plants ; and so far from 

 injuring plants, in minute quantities, arsenic occurs in the best super- 

 phosphates and the volcanic soil around Naples, which, like all volcanic 

 soils, contains an unusual amount of it, has the reputation of being a 

 specific against fungoid diseases in plants. A certain quantity may 

 therefore be beneficial to plants, as it appears to be to animals, since 

 horses fed on a grain or two a day are said to thrive and grow fat.f 



Its Influence on Man indirectly through the Soil or througu 

 THE Plant. — The Green as now used couldnot well collect insufficient 

 quantities to be directly deleterious to man in the field in any imagi- 

 nable way ; while its injury through the plant is, I think, out of the 

 question ; for the plant could not absorb enough without being killed. 

 The idea that the earth is being sown with death by those who fight 

 the Colorado Potato-beetle with this mineral, may, therefore, be dis- 

 missed as a pure phantasmagoria. 



In conclusion, while no one denies the danger attending the care- 

 less use of Paris Green, and all who have recommended its use have 

 not hesitated to caution against such carelessness, a careful inquiry 

 into the facts from the experimental side bears out the results of a 

 long and extensive experience among the farmers of the country — 

 viz : that there is no present or future danger from its judicious use, 

 in the diluted form, whether as liquid or powder, in which it is now 

 universally recommended. A'or is the wholesale charge made by Dr. 

 LeConte that the remedy has beenrecommendedby persons who have- 

 observed only the effects of the poison on the insects to which their 

 attention has been directed, warranted by the facts. It is in this as in 

 so many other things, a proper use of the poison has proved, and will 

 prove in future, a great blessing to the country, where its abuse can 

 only be followed by evil consequences. Poison is only a relative term 

 and that which is most virulent in large quantities is oftentimes- 

 harmless or even beneficial to animal economy in smaller amounts. 

 The farmers will look forward with intense interest to the work of the 

 committee appointed by the National Academy, or of any national 

 commission appointed to investigate the subject, and will hail with 



The 

 These metals 



•Prof. Johnson, {loc. cit.) writes : 



wide distrihution of both arsenic and copper is ■well known to niiiieralogists and chemists. 



als are dissolved in Ihe waters of many lamoiis mineral springs, as those of Vichj' and Wies- 

 baden. Prof. Hardin fonnd in the ]{ockbridge Alum Springs of Virginia, arsenic, antimony, lead, 

 copi)er, zinc, cobalt, nickel, manganese, and iron. The arsenic, however, was present in exceedingly 

 minute rjuantity Even river water, as that of the Mile, contains an appreciable quantity of arsenic. 

 Dr. Will, the s'ticcessor of Liebig at Giessen, proved the existent e of five jioisonoiis metals in the wafer 

 of the celebrated mineral springs of Pippoldsau, in Baden. In tlie Joseph's Spring he found to 10,000,- 

 OOO parts of water arsenic (white,) G parts ; tin oxide, 1-1 ])art; antimony oxide, 1-0 part; lead oxide. 

 1-i part; copper oxide, 1 part. Arsenic and copper have been found in a multitude of iron ores, in the 

 sediments Irom chalybeate S))rings, in clays, marls and cultivated soils. I5ut we donot hear that tlie 

 arsenic thus widely distributed in watei's and soils ever accumulates in plant or animal to a deleterious 

 extent. 



t See an article on " Ar.scnic in Agi-icultiiral and Technical Products,'' by Prof. A. Vogel, in 

 Scientijic American, Oct. 17, 1874. 



