ON THE PHYSICAL POWER OF INSECTS. 
gS2 
part of the summer of 1832, the Pines failed to put out their usual fresh shoots, 
and presently their branches were seen every where dying. Specimens of the dis¬ 
eased trees were forwarded to various professors throughout Germany, with urgent 
letters requesting them to use their best endeavours to explain the cause of the 
injury, and to suggest any remedy for its prevention. After some time it was 
found that the evil arose from an insect, scarcely visible to the naked eye, being 
imbedded at the root of each leaf. It will be remembered that the leaves of the 
Pine are small and very numerous; consequently the number of these insects 
requisite to produce the decay of a branch or a tree may be imagined. Where 
they came from, or how they could be removed, were questions for which no one 
offered any solution. 
The physical power of insects ns labourers, employing the term in its fullest 
sense, may be said to be one of the most destructive living agents in the present 
era of our planet. Sir Humphrey Davy, in alluding to the physical power of 
insects, has said, “ The most insignificant creatures triumph as it were over the 
grandest works of man." Also, “ As the Worm devours the lineaments of his 
mortal beauty, so the most humble and insignificant insects shall undermine and 
sap the foundations of his colossal works, and make their habitations among the, 
ruins of his palaces, and the falling seats of his earthly glory." 
Insects thus serve an important part in the third step for fulfilling the gradually 
progressive adaptation of the materials of our world for sustaining a more luxu¬ 
riant vegetation and a greater amount of animal life. 
The co-operative power of Ants, as labourers, enables them to perform works 
of a magnitude surpassed only in the lower departments of the animal kingdom 
by the coral animalcule. 
The habitations reared by the White Ants (Termes bellicosus) of tropical 
countries have been by some naturalists compared with the Colossal Pyramids of 
Egypt, to shew that the works of this insect bear a greater ratio to its size than 
the most lofty works of man do to his magnitude. So far as dimensions go the 
comparison will hold good, but when durability—which cannot be fairly excluded 
from such an estimate—is taken into consideration, the labours of the White Ants 
sink into comparative insignificence. 
Bishop Heber, in his travels in Hindostan, describes Ant-hills five or six feet 
high, and seven or eight feet in circumference. Other travellers mention them as 
high as twenty feet. Thus, these erections appear to exceed in size those of any 
other of the higher members of the animal kingdom. 
The White Ants are omnivorous, but seem chiefly to direct their ravages 
against dead vegetable matter. They employ their power not only in rearing 
their huge encampments, but also in making covert ways in every direction 
leading to the objects for their attacks; and so assiduous are they in their labours 
