

LOCALITY AND NATURE. 171 



track over everything ; if he comes to the wall of a house 

 he goes straight up without the smallest hesitation, and 

 explores a good height before he comes down again ; if 

 he finds a loaf of bread in the cellar he never thinks of 

 going round it, but travels in a Roman road up and over. 

 So do the armies of ants in warmer climates, and this 

 proceeding in an invariable line irrespective of obstacles 

 seems to be peculiar to many creatures, and is the reason 

 why such ' plagues ' were and are so dreaded. Nothing 

 could divert the straight march of the locusts ; nothing 

 could divert the course of the millions of butterflies that 

 sometimes cross the Channel and arrive here from the 

 Continent. 



The tenacity of insects in anything they have once 

 begun is shown in many ways ; you cannot drive away 

 a fly or a gnat, and if a colony of ants take up their 

 home in the garden they will hardly move till all are 

 destroyed. Aristotle mentions the diseases of swine, so 

 it will not be amiss to record that in the country swine 

 arc supposed to suffer from water-brash, and to relieve 

 themselves by eating dry earth, for which purpose those 

 that run loose arc continually tearing up the ground. 

 Human beings so affected show a similar tendency for 

 dry food, as oatmeal. Sometimes the liver of calves and 

 bullocks is small and dry, of very little use for food ; 

 this is found to be due to the neglect of providing them 

 with dry standing-ground when fattening. To ensure 

 their fattening properly they should stand on dry and 

 high ground, and they should be plentifully supplied 

 with dry litter. This fact may be of value to some 

 suffering person ; it points to the necessity of dry warm 

 feet, dry subsoil, and drainage if the liver is to be in 

 good order. Popular suspicion, if not science, attaches 

 many other diseases besides those that actually consume 



