CHAP. VI. INJURIOUS INSECTS. 205 



Many have their gills armed with spines ; and wounds 

 by these processes are very severe, and sometimes occa- 

 sion a considerable effusion of blood. Others and 

 they form a large division have the rays of their 

 dorsal fins entirely composed of these spines, which 

 they can erect and depress at pleasure ; while those of 

 the genus Acanthurus, or lance-tail, have a sharp bony 

 process, not unlike the very large thorn of a rose 

 tree, placed on each side of the tail ; by this they 

 can inflict a lacerated cut on the hand of any one who 

 is so imprudent as to seize them in that part, But the 

 hedgehog fish of the Indian seas (Diodonid<p) possess 

 this defence in its highest degree : their whole body is 

 beset by strong acute spines, pointing at a right angle 

 from the fish in every direction ; so that it is quite im- 

 possible to handle them, when alive. Some are said to 

 be poisonous in their flesh ; others to inflict the same 

 injury by means of certain fins and spines, placed near 

 the head : but all these, comparatively, are minor evils, 

 and seldom, if ever, terminate fatally. 



(219.) If the injuries to which mankind is subjected, 

 from the larger animals of creation, appear more to be 

 dreaded, from their nature and their frequency, than 

 such as he is exposed to from the lesser races, the latter 

 are not, therefore, to be despised, or regarded as insuffi- 

 cient to destroy life. Whether we regard the injuries 

 inflicted upon us by the insect world, puny beings 

 which we can crush in an instant, as intended to 

 teach us humility, or to show us what insignificant in- 

 struments can be employed, in the hands of the Al- 

 mighty, to punish individuals, or nations, for their sins, 

 certain it is, that these tribes have the power of afflict- 

 ing us with the greatest evils that can befall the human 

 race. They have produced death in its most loathsome 

 form ; and have been, to entire nations, the occasion 

 of plague, pestilence, and famine. Messrs. Kirby and 

 Spence, from whose varied researches we shall, in this 

 portion of our work, draw largely, has truly observed, 

 that " the numerous tribes of insects, as the prophet 



