THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
july,i893. 
INSECTS  INJURIOUS  TO  DRUGS. 
By  Professor  L.  E.  Sayre. 
A  knowledge  of  entomology  to  the  average  pharmacist  has 
always  been  considered  of  little  more  value  than  an  ornamental 
accomplishment,  having  little  more  application  than  the  scientific 
classification  and  naming  of  the  few  drugs  derived  from  the  insect 
world.  To  give  these  proper  entomological  names  and  understand 
in  some  degree  their  relations  to  other  insects  and  the  relations  of 
the  groups  to  which  they  belong  to  other  groups  has  been  all  that 
was  deemed  necessary  for  the  pharmacist  to  know  of  this  depart- 
ment of  scientific  study. 
It  needs  little  argument  to  prove  that  a  more  intimate  study  of 
insects  is  not  only  useful  but  is  almost  as  essential  to  those  who  are  sup- 
posed to  discover  the  cause  of  deterioration  and  to  be  able  to  combat 
the  same  intelligently.  This  knowledge  should  extend  to  the  insect 
forms  which  infest  and  feed  upon  drugs  and  their  preparations,  as 
the  mites  and  dermestid  beetles  and  forms  which  prey  upon  the 
drug-eating  species.  This,  it  may  be  said,  embraces  a  very  limited 
range  in  the  eyes  of  the  entomologist,  but  an  acquaintanceship  with 
this  much  of  the  science  should  be,  for  very  practical  purposes, 
well  understood. 
It  is  not  my  purpose  in  the  subjoined  article  to  treat  of  the  science, 
per  se,  or  to  go  into  any  lengthy  detail  as  to  the  study  of  drug-eat- 
ing insects  as  has  been  carried  on  in  the  entomological  department  of 
the  University  of  Kansas.  An  article  by  Prof.  V.  L.  Kellogg  and 
myself,  describing  the  work  of  last  year,  will  be  found  in  the  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  Kansas  Pharmaceutical  Association  for  1892.  Since 
(32D 
