178 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 
The merry cricket, puling fly, 
The piping gnat for minstrelsy : 
And now we must imagine first 
‘The elves present, to quench his thirst, 
A pure seed pearl of infant dew, 
Brought and besweeten’d in a blue 
And pregnant violet ; which done, 
His kitling eyes begin to run 
Quite threceh the table, where he spies 
The horns of papery butterflies, 
Of which he eats, and tastes a little 
Of what we call the cuckoo’s spittle; 
A little furze-ball pudding stands 
By, yet not blessed by his hands, 
That was too coarse; but then forthwith 
He ventures boldly on the pith 
Of sugar’d rush, and eats the sag 
And well be-strutted bee’s sweet bag ; 
Gladding his palate with some store 
Of emmet’s eggs: what would he more? 
But beards of mice, a newt’s stew’d thigh, 
A bloated earwig and a fly: 
With the red-capp’d worm that’s shut 
Within the concave of a nut, 
Brown as his tooth; a little moth 
Late fatten’d in a piece of cloth, 
With wither’d cherries, mandrakes’ ears, 
Moles’ eyes; to these the slain stag’s tears; 
The unctuous dewlaps of a snail ; 
The broke heart of a nightingale 
O’ercome in music ; ——— 
wt ‘This done, commended 
Grace by his priest, the feast is ended.” — 
Having considered insects as adding to the general stock of food, I shall 
next request your attention while I detail to you how far the medical 
science is indebted to them. Had I addressed you a century ago, I could 
have made this an ample history. Amongst scores of infallible panaceas, 
I should have recommended the wood-louse as a solvent and aperient ; 
powder of silk-worm for yertigo and convulsions ; millepedes against the 
jaundice ; earwigs to strengthen the nerves ; powdered scorpion for the 
stone and gravel ; fly-water for disorders in the eyes; and the tick for 
erysipelas. I should have prescribed five gnats as an excellent purge; 
wasps as diuretics; lady-birds for the colic and measles; the cockchafer 
for the bite of a mad dog and the plague; and ants and their acid T should 
have loudly praised as incomparable against leprosy and deafness, as 
strengthening the memory, and giving vigour and animation to the whole 
bodily frame.!_ In short, I could have easily added to the miserably 
meagre list of modern pharmacopeeias, a catalogue of approved inscct- 
remedies for eyery disease and evil 
“that flesh is heir to!” 
But these good times are long gone by. You would, I fear, laugh at my 
prescriptions notwithstanding the great authorities I could cite in their 
1 For this list of remedies, see Lesser, Z. ii. 171—173. 
