142 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



or even by drinking mead. I once knew a lady upon 

 whom these acted like poison, and have heard of instances 

 in which death was the consequence. Sometimes, when 

 bees extract their honey from poisonous plants, such re- 

 sults have not been confined to individuals of a particular 

 habit or constitution. A remarkable proof of this is given 

 by Dr. Barton in the fifth volume of The American Phi- 

 losophical Transactions. In the autumn and winter of the 

 year 1 790, an extensive mortality was produced amongst 

 those who had partaken of the honey collected in the 

 neighbourhood of Philadelphia. The attention of the 

 American Government was excited by the general di- 

 stress, a minute inquiry into the cause of the mortality 

 ensued, and it was satisfactorily ascertained that the honey 

 had been chiefly extracted from the flowers of Kalmia 

 latifolia. 



Amongst other direct injuries occasioned by these 

 creatures, perhaps, out of regard for the ladies, I ought 

 to notice the alarm which many of them occasion to the 

 loveliest part of the creation. When some females re- 

 tire from society to avoid a wasp ; others faint at the 

 sight of a spider ; and others, again, die with terror if 

 they hear a death-watch : these groundless apprehensions 

 and superstitious alarms are as much real evils to those 

 who feel them, as if they were well founded. But having 

 already adverted to this subject, I shall here only quote 

 the observation of a wise man, that " Fear is a betraying 

 of the succours that reason offereth a ." The best remedy, 

 therefore, in such cases is going to reason for succour. 

 In a few instances, indeed, the evil may take root in a 



* Wiscl. xvii, 12. 



