OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 33 



to fertilize the eggs of numerous generations of Aphides ! 

 And how defective would be all our reasonings on the 

 powers of nutrition and secretion, had we yet to learn 

 that in insects both are in action unaccompanied by the 

 circulating system and glands of larger animals ! 



In another point of view entomological information is 

 very useful. A great deal of unnecessary mischief is pro- 

 duced, and unnecessary uneasiness occasioned, by what 

 are called vulgar errors, and that superstitious reliance 

 upon charms, which prevents us from having recourse to 

 remedies that are really efficacious. Thus, for instance, 

 eating figs and sweet things has been supposed to gene- 

 rate lice a . Nine larvae of the moth of the wild teasel in- 

 closed in a reed or goose quill have been reckoned a re- 

 medy for ague b . Matthiolus gravely affirms that every 

 oak-gall contains either a fly, a spider, or a worm ; and 

 that the first foretells war, the second pestilence, and the 

 third famine c . In Sweden the peasants look upon the 

 grub of the cock-chafer as furnishing an unfailing pro- 

 gnostic whether the ensuing winter will be mild or se- 

 vere ; if the animal have a blueish hue (a circumstance 

 which arises from its being replete with food) they affirm 

 it will be mild, but on the contrary if it be white the wea- 

 ther will be severe : and they carry this so far as to fore- 

 tell, that if the anterior part be white and the posterior 

 blue, the cold will be most severe at the beginning of the 

 winter. Hence they call this grub Bemarkelse-mask) or 

 prognostic worm d . A similar augury as to the harvest 

 is drawn by the Danish peasants from the mites which 

 infest the common dung beetle (Geotrupes stercorarius), 



a Amoreux, 276. b Rai. Cat. Cant. 45. Hist. Ins. 341. 



c Comment, in Dioscor. 1. 1. c. 23. 214. Lesser. L. ii. 280. 

 < De Geer, iv. 275-6. 

 VOL. I. D 



