NOXIOUS AND VALUABLE AMMALS. 



Whenever any thing is presented to us which has appai'ently been 

 the result of careful study, but which we do not understand, the first 

 question we naturally ask is, " What is the use of it?" — "In what 

 manner is it calculated to promote or disturb my interests? " There 

 are many, into whose hands the foregoing Report may come, who will 

 feel no other interest in it, than as it may inform them of profitable 

 sources of revenue, or the means of averting damages. For such, I 

 propose to embody here the little there is to be said respecting the in- 

 juries and benefits derived from the animals of which we have been 

 taking a view. 



Only a very few of them all are objects of special regard to man. 

 Most of them are small, some very minute, and withdrawn from his 

 view. They are immersed in the streamlet and pool, or concealed 

 under decaying leaves and logs, or buried in the ocean depths. And 

 when seen, they are regarded by the common eye as worthless, or as 

 nuisances. The philosophic mind, however, regards every link in the 

 chain of being as important, worthy of study, and indispensable in the 

 economy of creation. They are proved to be designed for the good 

 of man by their preexistence. The races of vegetables and animals 

 which preceded the creation of man, all seem to have contributed to 

 prepare the earth for his residence. Much of its solid structure, the 

 coal, marble, and all other limestones, those valuable minerals which 

 contribute in so many ways to the necessities, comforts, and luxuries 

 of man, are but the consolidated remains of the countless genera- 

 tions of plants, shells, and crustaceous animals which have lived in 

 past time. The small and minute creatures make up the mass of these 

 solid structures ; while the monsters of olden time, the mammoth, 

 mastodon, and gigantic lizard are of rare occurrence. 



The great agency which the animalcula are capable of exercisinp- 

 upon the well-being of man, is thus seen in the past. The fact that 

 45 



