424 . Useful Insects and their Products. 
maturity in its concealment; and in some countries the fruit is im- 
proved by a singular operation, called caprrftcation. This is per- 
formed by suspending on threads, above the cultivated figs, branches 
of the wild fig, which are full of a species of gall-fly. When the 
insect has become winged, it quits the wild figs, and penetrates 
the cultivated figs, for the purpose of laying its eggs; and thus it 
appears both to ensure the fructification, by dispersing the pollen, 
and afterwards to hasten the ripening, by puncturing the pulp, 
and causing a 'dispersion or circulation of the nutritious juices." 
A second crop is also obtained by this means, but is thought to 
deteriorate the fruit. In France, the effect of caprification is 
gained by puncturing the figs with straws dipped in olive oil. 
A certain species of ant [Formica hispinosa, Oliv.; F. fungosa, 
F.) collects from the Bombax and silk-cotton tree a kind of lint, 
which, as a styptic, or stancher of blood, is preferable to the pulF- 
ball {Lycoperdoj}.) At Cayenne this lint is taken from the ants, 
and succesfully used to stop 6ven the most violent heemorrhages. 
A traveller, whose name and that of the country of which he 
speaks, I have unfortunately omitted to preserve, says, " It is 
customary here to apply, at the commencement of the goitre, 
poultices of warm gouids, the patient at the same time drinking 
water Mhich has stood for several days upon a pounded mass of 
large ant-hills. The component parts of these ant-hills, M'hich are 
from 5 to 6 feet high, in the construction of which the insects 
make use of a peculiar animal slime as a cement, certainly seem 
capable of counteracting the causes which produce that frightful 
disease. Perhaps, too, the acid of the ants may have a beneficial 
influence on the relaxed nerves of the patient, as well as on the de- 
bility of the lymphatic system." 
In America it is not uncommon for a nest of hornets to be sus- 
pended in the parlors, that they may destroy the flies and gnats 
which are very troublesome to the inhabitants. Reaumer states, 
that the French butchers are glad to have wasps about their stalls, 
for the purpose of driving ^way the blow-flies. In our own 
country wasps do us some service in destroying great numbers of 
tormenting flies and moths. 
Knox informs us that bees are eaten in Ceylon. Gilbert 
"White mentions a poor idiot boy, who, from his childhood, showed 
a strong propensity for eating honey-bees, humble-bees, and wasps, 
wherever he could find them. He had no apprehensions from 
their stings, but would seize them in his naked hand, ancj at once 
disarm them of their weapons, and suck their bodies for the sake 
<rf their honey-bags. He was wonderfully adroit in the pursuit of 
these insects, and when he ran about, he used to make a humming 
noise with his lips, resembling the buzzing of bees. He was very 
injurious to bee-keepers; for he would enter their gardens, and, 
