14 The Hunting IVasps 



the sting, the needle destined for the inoculation, 

 would therefore serve as a kind of brine or pickle 

 to preserve the meat on which the larva is to 

 feed. But how immensely superior to our own 

 pickling processes is that of the Wasp ! We 

 salt, or smoke, or tin foodstuffs which remain 

 fit to eat, it is true, but which are very far indeed 

 from retaining the qualities which they pos- 

 sessed when fresh. Tins of sardines soaked in 

 oil, Dutch smoked herrings, codfish reduced to 

 hard slabs by salt and sun : which of these can 

 compare with the same fish supplied to the 

 cook, so to speak, all alive and kicking ? In the 

 case of flesh-meat, things are even worse. Apart 

 from salting and curing, we have nothing that 

 can keep a piece of meat fit for consumption for 

 even a fairly short period. 



Nowadays, after a thousand fruitless attempts 

 in the most varied directions, we equip special 

 ships at great cost ; and these ships, fitted with 

 a powerful refrigerating-plant, bring us the 

 flesh of sheep and oxen slaughtered in the 

 South American pampas, frozen and preserved 

 from decomposition by the intense cold. How 

 much more excellent is the Cerceris' method, 

 so swift, so inexpensive, and so efficacious ! 

 What lessons can we not learn from her tran- 

 scendental chemistry ! With an imperceptible 

 drop of her poison-fluid, she straightway renders 



