Febeuaky 17, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



235 



now know as economic entomology, and 

 which, although originating in Europe, has 

 been encouraged to such an extent in our 

 own country, owing partly to our greater 

 necessities and partly to our practical turn 

 of mind, that it is safe to say that at present 

 America leads the rest of the world in this 

 direction. 



It is undoubtedly true that this enormous 

 injury to crops is the chief item in a general 

 consideration of the injuries brought about 

 by insects. 



AS DESTEOYEES OF STORED FOODS, DWELLINGS, 

 CLOTHES, BOOKS, ETC. 



It is safe to say that there is hardly any 

 product of man's ingenuity, hardly one of 

 the thousands of useful materials upon 

 which depend his comfort and happiness, 

 which is not damaged, directly or indirectly, 

 by insects. The timbers of which his 

 dwellings are built, nearly all of his house- 

 hold utensils, his garments, practically 

 everything which he uses as food, many of 

 the liquids used as drink, his books, the 

 ornaments with which he surrounds himself, 

 the medicines which he takes when sick, 

 the very tobacco with which he solaces him- 

 self — all are destroyed or injui-iously af- 

 fected by insects. There is, perhaps, one 

 group of exceptions, and that is those articles 

 which are composed wholly of metal, and 

 yet even here insects may occasionally play 

 an injurious part, since instances are on 

 record of the destruction of lead pipes by 

 insect larvse, and the perforation of the 

 metal linings of water tanks by small 

 beetles. 



Such injuries to human products are more 

 frequent and serious in tropical regions than 

 in temperate zones, but even here insects 

 of this nature cause very serious inconven- 

 ience and great annual loss. It will answer 

 our purpose, perhaps, to list some of the 

 varying substances which are damaged in 

 this way, to get an idea of their almost uni- 



versal character : Ham, cheese, salted 

 fish, butter, lard, dried mushrooms, rye 

 bread, sweetmeats and preserves, powdered 

 coffee, almonds and other nuts, raisins, 

 breakfast foods, chocolate, ginger, rhubarb, 

 black pepper, vinegar, sugar, wines, canned 

 soups, tobacco, snuff, licorice, peppermint, 

 aromatic cardamon, aniseed, aconite, bella- 

 donna, musk, opium, ginseng, chamomile, 

 boneset, hides, shoes, gloves and other 

 leather articles, furniture, carpets, drawings 

 and paintings, paint brushes, gun wads, 

 combs, etc., made of horn ; haj', oats, straw, 

 willow baskets, ax handles, ladders, wheel 

 spokes and all sorts of agriculural imple- 

 ments with wooden handles, barrels, wine 

 casks, corks of wine bottles, sheets of cork, 

 natural history collections, including skele- 

 tons and mummies, and even Persian insect 

 powder ! The mention of this well-known 

 insecticide reminds one of the latest discov- 

 ery, which is that certain flies in California 

 breed in the crude petroleum pools in the 

 vicinity of oil wells, a fact which is almost 

 paradoxical in view of the extensive use of 

 petroleum as an insecticide. 



AS INJURIOUS TO LIVE STOCK AND OTHER 

 USEFUL ANIMALS. 



Every species of animal which has be- 

 come domesticated and is of value to man 

 possesses its insect parasites and enemies. 

 These in many cases are the same species 

 which affect man and which we will men- 

 tion in the next section ; others are specific 

 to the animals or groups of animals which 

 they affect. Horses, cattle, sheep, all 

 possess insect enemies which are not only 

 very deleterious to their health, but fre- 

 quently cause their death in numbers. 



The disgusting bot fly of the horse, whose 

 maggots live in incredible numbers in the 

 stomach and intestines of this noble friend 

 of the human race ; the bot fly of the ox, 

 which causes innumerable sores on the 

 backs of cattle and by its perforations ruins 



