THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



175 



Here we might stop. The thing is so plain 

 that even a child can understand it. It is no 

 new tiieory of ours. It is simply the result of 

 the experience of all the intelligent farmers of 

 the West for a long series of years. It may be 

 expressed in these words: In a hot, dry season 

 Chinch Bugs are always the worst; in a wet sen- 

 son it is impossible for them to do any consid- 

 erable amount of damage. But Dr. Henry 8hi- 

 mer is not satisfied with a theory so simple and 

 clear, that it scarcely deserves the name of 

 theory. He has gotten up and expounded to 

 the world a uew and recondite theory of his 

 own, namely, that in the terribly wet season of 

 180"), when the Chinch Bug, although in early 

 spring it had appeared in very great numbers, 

 was almost annihilated in the course of the 

 summer, it perished, not as others had foolishly 

 sujjposed, from the direct operation of the rain, 

 but indirectly through a certain mysterious epi- 

 demic disease, analogous to the Cholera or the 

 Yellow Fever among human beings. lie fully 

 allows that the mortality among the Chinch 

 Bugs was conteraporaneons with the wet 

 weather; but he will have it that it was not the 

 wot weather that killed the Bug, as wo common 

 folks have always hitherto believed, but that it 

 was his newly-discovered Epidemic Disease. 

 He gives no name to this disease ; but we think 

 that those who may still believe in its existence 

 should, for convenience' sake and for the sake of 

 additional scientific display, call it for the future 

 " Febris Shimerana." 



In science, when a new theory is broached, 

 we always ask, '""Where are the proofs of it?" 

 Here follows all the proof, that we have bcefi 

 able to find of this hypothesis of Dr. Shimer's, 

 after repeatedly perusing his own Paper on the 

 subject.* As in common fairness bound, we 

 quote his own language at full length. The 

 italics are ours, not his. 



Pkoof 1st (p. 101).—' ' There can be iio doubt about 

 this beuig an epidemic disease, iecaime the inxeds died 

 'rithout attahiintf their viattwity. ' ' 



Proof 2nd (p. lOl).— ■•This dKeaso iinion-' the 

 CliindiUu-. u-a<as>oriat.>awitI, •■ ' ,- ,,;,„.J„w. 

 doudii. .:.,.) ,r..,tl,.r tliat prevail, d 'i: i;:. i _. - iln- por- 

 tion of thr prri.Ml of tliLii- ,1,-\,>|,,|,:,, ir , , ) lauMli-ss 

 was in a iiiiM-iu-i- pDMlii,-,-,! /.y ' . :-/'-/«./ 



fledricitij, lunibiUfd with i.'xct.--i\ . liiHni.lii\ ot thi' 

 atmosplieri', whereby an iMipuilVrt piivsiral ('bu^'") 

 organization was developed. Thi- (li<i'ase was at its 

 maximum (iKr»ny(/j« nwni^t irarm. uyath, /-that followed the 

 cold rains of June and the first part of .July . Thr young 

 Chiucli Bug spent a great portion of its tiine on or near 

 the ground, where its lodij was colder than the atmospJwre; 

 heihcef upon, plt-ilosophi-cal prin-ciples , therf must have been 

 an excessive precipitation of watery vapor in the hronrhial 

 tiilies. These are the facts in. the case. ' ' 



AVe are no physicians ourselves; but in all 

 humility we should like to ask the following 



most unprofessional questions of Dr. Shimer, 

 before we can consent to believe that the above 

 two quotations demonstrate the existence of 

 Febris Shimerana. 



As TO HIS Proof 1st.— Half the children that 

 are born die before they are one year old. Does 

 it follow therefore that they all die of •' epidemic 

 disease?" And if not, why not? Surely this 

 would be Just as legitimate an inference as Dr. 

 Shimer's. Again, we have ourselves repeatedly 

 had whole broods of Iarv«, that we were endeav- 

 oring to rear to the perfect winged form, per- 

 ish "without attaining maturity." Hitherto 

 we had always supposed that they died because 

 we had kept them too dry or too moist, given 

 them the wrong food, etc., etc. Did they in 

 reality die of Febris Shimerana F Certainly 

 such an inference would be just as legitimate as 

 the inference quoted above, namely, that the 

 Chinch Bugs in 1865 must have died of epidemic 

 disease, simply because they " died without 

 attaining their maturity." 



As TO HIS Proof 2nd.— If Febris Shimerana 

 is produced by "an excessive precipitation of 

 watery vapor in the bronchial tubes " of the 

 Chinch Bng, in consequence of" its body being 

 colder than the atmosphere ;" how does it come 

 about that, according to Dr. Shimer himself, 

 this dreadful epidemic disease commenced with 

 the " cool weather " and was only at its " maxi- 

 mum during the moist warm weather?" Or is 

 the body of the Chinch Bug naturally so cold, 

 when it is " on or near the ground," that even 

 in ••' cool weather " it is so much colder than the 

 atmosphere, as to cause the " precipitation of 

 watery vapor in its bronchial tubes?" If so, 

 we should like to know what prevents this "pre- 

 cipitation of watery vapor " every year, and 

 why the dreadful epidemic only prevailed in 

 18i>;j? The whole thing from beginning to end 

 is pure assumption. Neither Dr. Shimer nor 

 any other mortal man ever inserted the bulb of 

 a thermometer into the " bronchial tubes " of a 

 Chinch Bug, so as to ascertain what the temper- 

 ature there was. Besides, the theory contra- 

 dicts itself. First, we are told that Febris 

 Shimerana is " doubtless in a measure produced 

 by deficient heat " in the atmosphere, and then 

 immediately afterwards it is accounted for on 

 the hypothesis of the " body of the Chinch Bug 

 being colder than the atmosphere,'" which im- 

 plies a superabundance of heat in the atmosphere. 

 And such gratuitous assumptions as these are 

 called " facts,'" and such untenable principles are 

 put forth with a gretit parade of learning as "phi- 

 losophical I" Verily, if this is philosophy, we 

 do not know where wo can go to C.nd charlatan- 



