70 USES OF INSECTS. 



Madame Tussaud's show, remind us of the busy Insects, who 

 were the first workers of the plastic paste. Nor, among the 

 curious works of art, whose basis is this work of nature, must 

 we overlook the waxen flowers which, in their fadeless bloom 

 and exquisite imitative beauty, bring a garden (in all but per- 

 fume) within the walls of the Pantheon. This is an interesting 

 as well as elegant use of the rifled riches of " buds and bells/' 

 thus paid back by perpetuation of their fleeting loveliness. 

 It is needless to enumerate a variety of other uses to. which 

 wax is applied, for they are everywhere apparent; even in 

 the comfortless dry-rubbed floor of the French hotel or chateau, 

 and the single mahogany table (valued heir-loom of the English 

 cottage), wherein the housewife is furnished by the Bee's in- 

 dustry with a mirrored reflection of her own. 



Much more extensive and important than any of the fore- 

 going, but, as less palpable, even more disregarded, are the 

 general uses of Insect existence. Disease engendered of cor- 

 ruption in substances animal and vegetable, would defy all the 

 precautions of man, unless these were aided by scavenger 

 Insects, those myriads of Flies and carrion Beetles, whose per- 

 petual labours even in our tempered climate, but infinitely more 

 so in warmer regions, are essentially important to cleanliness 

 and health. 



Some insects, especially Gnat Larvae, are most useful in 

 keeping water sweet and pure. 



As commissioned agents, ministering more or less directly to 

 our various pleasures, we owe no slender obligation to Insects. 

 Besides imparting variety and animation to summer scenes 

 by their " ceaseless hum " and endless diversity of form, they 

 assist in the support of most of our favourite songsters of the 

 garden and the grove. The red-breast, the wren, and the tit- 

 mouse live almost wholly upon worms and Insects, which also 

 serve the black-bird and the thrush as meat before a fruit 

 dessert. To the delicacies of our tables they are also indirect 

 contributors. Our game grows plump on the' nurselings of 



