THE CLAIMS OF INSECTS TO ATTENTION. S'iS 



the insects are remarkably similar, especially to an in- 

 experienced eye. It is from this sub-family that we 

 obtain the officinal Cantharidfis, so extensively used as 

 a vesicatory. Insects here, again, put forth a claim to 

 our consideration and notice, and are not such trivial 

 objects, or so despicable, as it pleases many to consider 

 them. For, thus having with the silkworm clothed us, 

 and this clothing then gaily coloured and decorated by 

 the cochineal insect (^Coccus Cacti), the bee lights up 

 our houses with its wax, and with its honey it furnishes 

 our tables with a luscious luxury; and when the intem- 

 perate enjoyment of this produces repletion and inflam- 

 mation, another insect is offered us, in the blister beetle, 

 to cool our fever, and to restore us to health. Nor are 

 the uses of insects confined to these few ; and perhaps 

 the indirect benefits we derive from them are more sub- 

 stantial tl)an those which are more obvious; yet these 

 necessarily involve the reflection of how many thousands 

 of our fellow creatures are daily occupied in, and derive 

 their whole means of living from, the cultivation and 

 produce, and the manufacture of the produce, of these 

 creatures. If we view their study, even merely with 

 the eyes of the political economist, all this must strike 

 us; and besides, who can say that an insect may not be 

 discovered, which shall surpass all yet known in confer- 

 ring benefit on the human race : and surely, when we 

 reflect on the devastation and injury caused by others, 

 the study ought to be promoted upon the principle of 

 self-defence. With all these, and the additional and 

 superior object to be obtained from their study, by its 

 opening to us a large chapter of the wisdom and good- 

 ness of God in the creation, pray let us hear no more of 

 entomology being talked of as an idle and frivolous pur- 

 suit. To return from this digression : the insect called 

 " the Spanish fly," is a beetle of a richly brilliant green 

 colour; it is found throughout Europe; and within the 

 last few years, it has occurred in great abundance in 

 various parts of the South of England. Whether our 

 native species would be as efficient for medicinal pur- 



Y 3 



] 



i 



