38 
INTRODUCTION. 
would attempt. An American author says : cc fleas are good for a dog, 
because they keep him from brooding over being a dog,” and explana¬ 
tions of this kind are possible where our domestic insects are concerned. 
But, were insects given to that kind of mentality and speculation (as 
they may be), it would be interesting to get their views on man and his 
place in their nature. Assuredly it would not agree with ours ; equally 
it may be, that, from any standpoint, whether material, mental, moral or 
spiritual, man is on no higher a level than insects ; and it might be better 
to classify our activities as they affected insects than to refer each insect 
to its “ use ” to us. 
A rough classification of the ways in which insects affect man may 
be attempted, chiefly with a view to securing clearness of idea :— 
1. Cause damage to growing plants directly. 
2. „ „ „ „ „ indirectly. 
3. „ „ „ stored products. 
4. ,, ,, ,, domestic animals directly. 
5. „ ,, „ ,, „ indirectly. 
6. Personally distasteful. 
7. Transmit disease to man. 
8. Assist agriculture directly. 
9. ,, ,, indirectly. 
10. Yield useful products. 
It is needless to dilate upon the first class ; all the insects that feed 
upon, or live in growing plants that are useful to man, are included. Of 
the second, we would say that very little is known, but that there may be 
a very large class whose quite unimportant attacks on plants open the 
way to the entry of fungoid or bacterial diseases, which may then be¬ 
come of great importance. There is a great difference between the small 
damage caused by the cane-borer direct and that of the fungus it brings 
or lets in ; and the broader aspects of this question are as yet but little 
known. The insects injurious to stored products, to grain, flour, dry 
food-products of all kinds, to timber, furniture, books, paper, fabrics, 
to every kind of human merchandise, made of material of animal or vege 
table origin, these are only too painfully familiar to us all, and, in the 
genial warmth and moistness of the Indian climate, they find conditions 
admirably suited to their plentiful increase. Insects that directly injure 
