The Life of the Fly 



no heed of it. She can drop her worms through 

 the meshes on the covered joint. 



Then what are we to do? Nothing could 

 be simpler. We need only wrap the birds 

 which we wish to preserve — Thrushes, Par- 

 tridges, Snipe and so on — in separate paper 

 envelopes; and the same with our beef and 

 mutton. This defensive armour alone, while 

 leaving ample room for the air to circulate, 

 makes any invasion by the worms impossible, 

 even without a cover or a meat-safe: not that 

 paper possesses any special preservative vir- 

 tues, but solely because it forms an impenetra- 

 ble barrier. The Bluebottle carefully refrains 

 from laying her eggs upon it and the Flesh- 

 fly from bringing forth her offspring, both of 

 them knowing that their new-born young are 

 incapable of piercing the obstacle. 



Paper is equally successful in our strife 

 against the Moths, those plagues of our furs 

 and clothes. To keep away these wholesale 

 ravages, people generally use camphor, naph- 

 thaline, tobacco, bunches of lavender and 

 other strong-scented remedies. Without wish- 

 ing to malign those preservatives, we are 

 bound to admit that the means employed are 

 none too effective. The smell does very little 

 to prevent the havoc of the Moths. 



336 



