THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
271 
An Under Valued Product. 
The origin of maize or Indian corn, is unknown, 
but it was first cultivated by .-white men on the 
James River, Virginia, in 1608. It is, says Mr. C. 
J. Murphy, about the only product of America 
that is not appreciated in Europe. American 
wheat, cotton, fruits and meats are now well 
known in the world’s markets, but maize is still 
shunned for use in the human dietary of the 
British Isles and most of the Continent. Yet 
analysR proves that the nutritive value of maize 
canuot be less than five-sixths of that of wheat. 
This food is, moreover, of remarkable health- 
fulness, and dyspepsia was scarcely known in 
America fifty year.- ago, when maize was the prin- 
cipal food. A sur[ rising number of delicacies and 
inexpensive dishes is now supplied, not less than 
130 recipes for boiling, baking and cooking this 
great staple having been tested and approved. The 
annual surplus of maize in the United States is 
enormous. It is used for feeding cattle and hogs, 
in making glucose, starch, beer and whiskey, and 
recently, for producing oil. No part of the plant 
is lost. The fodder is valuable food for animals, 
and has been used as fuel in treeless parts of the 
West, while the husks are made into paper, or 
employed for filling mattresses, packing fruits, 
and wrapping cigars. 
Insects in Biscuit. 
BY SURGEON CAPTAIN HUGHES A.M.S. 
As I have during the last year been investigat- 
ing the life history of the insects infesting some 
hundreds of cases of biscuits, shipped from En- 
gland, I bring forward the following facts in case 
they may be useful to others. 
The biscuit in question was packed in England 
arid sent out in tins supposed to be hermetically 
sealed, these tins being again enclosed in outer 
wooden cases. A large percentage of the tins 
were however, found to leak at the corners or 
seams, and in a few instances the nails used in 
closing the outer wooden cases had penetrated 
the tins. 
The following classes of insects were found: — 
I. The common weevil (Calandra granana), a 
small red beetle about the same size, and two small 
scorpions. The last were in tins with large leaks 
and must have gained entrance in Malta. The 
two former were very numerous in the biscuit 
store, coining from the adjacent forrage and wheat 
stores. They were found on the walls of the store, 
between the wooden and tin cases and within such 
cases only as possessed holes large enough for them, 
to enter by. On this account there could be little 
doubt that they gained access to the tins from the 
store in Malta. These insects pulverise the biscuit 
to some extent but do little other damage. 
II. The iarvae and imago of a larger beetle 
kindly forwarded by Surgeon Major Manchfe 
R.M.A. to Dr. Caruana Gatto, who identified it as 
the Tenebroides Mauritanicus (fam. Nitidulidae, 
Coleoptera). This beetle is rather less than inch 
long and is common to Malta, Gibraltar, Burmah 
&c. It lays its eggs on the biscuit and there deve- 
lopes, eating out a chamber in the centre. When 
full grown they are white in colour \ to £ inch 
long, with a brown head, and flat, broad, segmen- 
ted body. At this period they migrate if possible 
to some convenient spot and there undergo the 
change from larvae to beetles. Their cycle of 
existence would appear to be one year, six to eigb L 
months being taken up in the change from larvae 
to beetle. These biscuits were received from 
England early in 1890 and in December 1891 they 
they were found to contain full sized iarvae, which 
in turn became beetles in August and September 
1892, in captivity in an artificial incubator. Full 
grown beetles were only found in tins having holes 
large enough for them to find entrance while 
larvae were found in many tins, all of which pos- 
sessed small leakage holes. Neither larvae or 
beetle* were found in hermetically sealed tins. The 
beetle is very common in Malta, and was found in 
two cases between the wooden and tin cases. From 
the above facts we concluded that the biscuit 
became infected in Malta probably in August 1891, 
though it is possible that those cases with large 
nail holes, containing beetles became infected the 
year before. As a preventive measure all biscuit 
is in future to be stored well away from forrage 
and wheat stores and the present emptied tins 
after being treated with condy’s fluid, were refilled 
with Navy biscuit while warm from the oven and 
afterward really hermetically sealed. 
