Miscellaneous. 75 



rally, like the Lepidoptera, sparing in individuals ; we attribute it to 

 the uninterrupted extent of monotonous forest over which animal 

 life is sparingly but widely scattered. However this makes a differ- 

 ence in the commercial value of the subjects. The present collection 

 is the fruits of two months' devoted and almost exclusive attention 

 to insects. Shells and Orchids continue to be exceedingly scarce." 



How to prevent the Attacks of the Bed-bug, Cimex lectularius. 

 By John Blackwall, F.L.S. 



To Richard Taylor, Esq. 



Oakland, December 7th, 1848. 

 My dear Sir, — A short communication of mine, printed in the 

 ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History,' second series, vol. ii. 

 pp. 357-359, recommending the adoption of a method of preventing 

 the attacks of the bed-bug, founded on the fact, established by ob- 

 servation and experiment, that this loathsome insect, in consequence 

 of not being provided with a climbing apparatus, is incapable of 

 ascending hard dry bodies having highlj' polished perpendicular sur- 

 faces, has elicited, I perceive, a few strictures from the pen of your 

 correspondent Walter White, Esq., to the purport, that the plan 

 proposed is neither new in kind nor efficient in operation (' Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History,' second series, vol. ii. pp. 457,458). 



To the spirit in which the strictures are made, no objection can 

 possibly be entertained ; but I may be allowed to remark, that the 

 sole object I had in contemplation when obtruding upon the readers 

 of your widely-circulated Journal my thoughts in connexion with 

 this practical application of entomological knowledge to the domestic 

 comfort of thousands of human beings, was public utility ; whether 

 the scheme propounded had novelty to recommend it or not, I had 

 small means of ascertaining, and, indeed, did not stop to inquire, 

 being satisfied that, speaking generally, it was, at all events, either 

 unknovi^n or strangely disregarded. 



With reference to the only circumstance advanced by Mr. White 

 as militating against the efficacy of the project I have enunciated ; 

 namely, that bugs are in the habit of crawling up walls and along 

 ceilings until they perceive that they are directly over beds, when 

 they quit their hold of the plaster and drop upon them, I would ob- 

 serve, that although neither reading nor personal experience had 

 made me acquainted with this remarkable instinctive j^hsenomenon 

 in the natural history of the bed-bug, yet the idea had occurred to 

 my mind that such a descent might sometimes happen accidentally ; 

 but that as it would probably be a rare event, and, except in the 

 case of an impregnated female, would not be likely to produce per- 

 manent inconvenience, any special 2)rovision to counteract it was 

 deemed unnecessary. Considered as the result of an innate propen- 

 sity this act assumes a widely different character, and it becomes a 

 matter of importance to determine in what manner it can be guarded 



