INTRODUCTION. 



,bift an outer and worthless shell of what 

 it had once been. 



But it is not only the abundance of a 

 few of the commoner forms of insect life 

 which strikes terror and disgust into the 

 bosom of the Eastern exile, but the 

 astonishing numbers of minute forms 

 which swarm around us and dispute our 

 right to a place in a territory so peculiarly 

 their own. Take, e.g., our lamps after 

 sunset. Visit the brilliant arc light of 

 some tall street lamp or of a night running 

 river steamer : it will be seen to have 

 attracted myriads and myriads of large 

 and minute forms of insect life. On 

 Bengal, Assam and Burma river steamers 

 the lascars will come round and brush up 

 pail upon pail load of self-immolated 

 creatures. 



Or, again, the white napery of our 

 dinner table in the rains and at other 

 seasons also will show a crawling or 

 fluttering mass of forms amongst which 

 stalks solemnly or stands stationary that 



7 



