THE ECONOMIC STATUS OF INSECTS AS A CLASS. 553 



to agriculture, that has given rise to the comparatively new branch of 

 applied science which we 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 DESTROYERS OF 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 indi- 

 rectly, by insects. The timbers of which his dwellings are built, nearly 

 all of his household 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 himself — 

 all are destroyed or injuriously affected 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 larva3, 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 inconvenience 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 univer- 

 sal 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, belladonna, musk, 

 opium, ginseng, camomile, boneset, hides, shoes, gloves and other 

 leather articles, furniture, carpets, drawings and paintings, paint 

 brushes, gun wads, combs, etc., made of horn; hay, oats, straw, willow 

 baskets, ax handles, ladders, wheel spokes and all sorts of agricultural 

 implements with wooden handles, barrels, wine casks, corks of wine 

 bottles, sheets of cork, natural history collections, including skeletons 

 and mummies, and even Persian insect powder ! The mention of this 

 well-known insecticide reminds one of the latest discovery, 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, 



