KIDD'S LONDON JOURNAL. 



251 



sorts of insects are easily preserved for the 

 winter. The large species of flies may be 

 caught in great abundance in autumn, par- 

 ticularly the musca tenax, which, at that 

 season, are very plentiful on the dahlias, 

 French and African marigolds, and other 

 plants belonging to the composite ; musca 

 vomitoria is also plentiful on the ivy, when it 

 is in flower. Of these two species, large 

 quantities may be caught, and dried for the 

 winter. They only require to be put loosely 

 in a paper bag, and to be hung up in a dry 

 room, so that they do not get mouldy. 

 When they are given to the birds, a little 

 boiling water must be poured on them, which 

 softens them; anclthebirdsareasfondof them 

 as if they were alive. The common mag- 

 gots from decayed meat might also be saved 

 for them, in large quantities, by collecting 

 them late in the autumn, and putting them 

 in a large pot or pan in dry mould. By 

 keeping them in a cool, dry place, you may 

 preserve them all the winter, when a few 

 may be given to the birds as often as the 

 stock will allow of it. If kept in too warm 

 a place, they will turn quickly into the pupa 

 state, and the flies will soon come out of 

 them, thus causing the stock soon to di- 

 minish ; though the birds like them as well 

 or better in the pupa state. Some fine 

 gravel must be also kept continually in their 

 cages, as the birds of this genus eat a great 

 deal of it, and will not continue in good 

 health without a constant supply. They are 

 also very fond of washing often, so that a 

 pan of water, or something large enough for 

 them to get into, should be kept constantly 

 at the bottom of their cage. 



Note. — Mr. Sweet mentions in his paper on 

 the nightingale (forthcoming), that the larvae of 

 the common cockchafer are easily preserved in 

 pots of mould in the above manner. Mealworms 

 (which are found in great abundance wherever 

 old meal is, and which may be obtained in num- 

 bers at any bakery or mill, especially when a 

 few boards are taken up, where the flour and 

 dust has lain a long time), may be kept in jars 

 of meal, where, after turning to beetle?, they 

 propagate so fast that they literally swarm. 

 Most of this genus are particularly fond of them, 

 and also of ripe elderberries, which are easily 

 dried for winter use. Nightingales are very par- 

 tial to the mealworms, which are in consequence 

 mostly used by the London bird-catchers for 

 their traps. — E. C. 



{To be Continued?) 



SALT— THE CURSE OF OLD ENGLAND. 



HOWARD v. SALT. 



"A second Daniel come to judgment ! "Shakspeare. 



It is really marvellous to contemplate the 

 number of fools still to be found in this 

 great city, and throughout the country ge- 



nerally. Whatever absurdity springs up, 

 Avhatever new doctrine is disseminated, half 

 the world seems ready, — aye, eager to em- 

 brace it ! While this is the case, — and it 

 ever will be the case — impostors flourish, and 

 humbugs grow fat. 



Our pen has lately waxed valiant in an 

 onslaught upon the Electro - Biological 

 Quacks ; and we are told they vow ven- 

 geance against us. Let them do what they 

 will with us, so that they do not practise 

 upon us by the " laying on of hands." We 

 are every way their match in a fair stand-up 

 battle ; but when they have recourse to the 

 black art, and roar out at their victims with 

 the stentorian voice of Beelzebub, we beg to 

 cry off. " Dr." Darling, as he styles him- 

 self, and all the other self-dubbed u Doc- 

 tors," are bent on a dark mission of evil. 

 We have denounced them and their dark 

 doings from the very first. They shall cer- 

 tainly never get a meal out of our royal 

 person. Still, we may pity their poor dupes, 

 on whose vitals they continue to prey and 

 feast. But now for another of our modern 

 " Doctors." 



We learn from a small pamphlet, entitled 

 " Salt the Forbidden Fruit," that Salt is the 

 " chief cause of the diseases which attack 

 the body and mind of man and animals ;" 

 and this assertion has the warrant of the 

 author, — 



Robert Howard, M.D., 



Author of several Works on the 



Wisdom of Egypt ! ! 



for its truth and correctness. No doubt our 

 readers will consider we are jesting; but in- 

 deed we are not ; and if they will only pro- 

 cure the work we are noticing, and read it 

 through — a fearful task we admit — they will 

 marvel as much as we do that the writer is 

 not placed in safe custody until further 

 orders. 



We may add to the wonder already ex- 

 cited, by remarking that the author rashly 

 undertakes to " prove " his position by 

 Scripture, — and to what Books does he 

 refer ? to the Books of the Apocrypha ! ! 

 His quotations even from these Books, are 

 ludicrous in the extreme ; and the inferences 

 he deduces would throw a Stoic into a 

 guffaw. Hear this renowned Doctor 

 speak: — " Abstinence from salt (see p. 16) 

 will enlighten the mind of the people, and 

 change the character of the world. In this 

 way, a superior and a better race of people 

 will arise. This idea is now very widely 

 prevalent; nothing can possibly prevent this." 



This is a tolerable dose for a man or 

 woman with a narrow swallow ? But let us 

 look further and see what it was that turned 

 our Sister, Lot's Wife, into a Pillar of Salt. 

 The learned Doctor tells us, " that a mass of 

 Salt was the result of this woman's death !" 

 and he adds with becoming gravity (we 



