Other Arsenites. 75 



to foliage. The insecticidal action of the poison is not so 

 energetic as that of Paris green, but if used more freely the 

 insects will succumb. As yet English purple poison is little 

 used. 



White arsenic has long been known as an effectual destroyer 

 of insect life. In 1848 George Gordon l said that small brown 

 ants are easily destroyed by mixing with one pound of loaf 

 sugar a small portion of arsenic. Grind very fine and put the 

 mixture on bits of white cards near the places they frequent. It 

 is difficult to say how generally this advice was followed, but that 

 the poison was frequently tried for a similar purpose appears 

 very probable. Its very energetic poisonous qualities when it was 

 taken internally were well known, and these must naturally have 

 occurred to the minds of persons desirous of destroying insect 

 as well as animal life. Nevertheless, white arsenic was rarely 

 recommended as being a suitable poison to apply to the foliage 

 of plants, for its action is so caustic that the leaves are exposed 

 to nearly as great injury from the remedy as from the insect to 

 be overcome. It was used upon potato foliage for the destruc- 

 tion of the beetle, but with unsatisfactory results, Paris green 

 at the same time proving so much superior that the white 

 arsenic was abandoned. 2 But an account of the successful use 

 of the poison against the canker-worm appeared in 187 1. 3 John 

 Smith, of Des Moines, Iowa, writing to the Western Pomoloyist, 

 says that in 1868 he used arsenic, hellebore, and strychnine 

 against the canker-worm. lie applied them separately to dif- 

 ferent apple trees, using them as follows : 



Arsenic one-half pound dissolved in fifty gallons of water, and 

 applied to ten large trees. 



Hellebore two pounds mixed in four gallons of water, and 

 applied as above in fifty gallons of water. 



Strychnine one bottle, with an amount of water equal to that 

 used with the other materials, and similarly applied. 



In two days the worms on the part treated with the arsenic 

 were all dead, and the application of hellebore was also followed 

 by good results. Strychnine apparently possessed little value for 



1 Jour. London //oft. Soe. 1S48, Vol. iv. It). 



2 Saunders and Heed, Canadian Entomologist, 1871, July, 41. 



3 Smith, Western Pomologist, Vol. ii. 1871, May, 125. See, also, The Small 

 Fruit Recorder, 1871, July 1, 108. 



