INSECTA, in natural history, a smaller sort of animals, commonly supposed to be exanguious; and distinguished by certain incisions, cuttings, or indentings in their bodies. The word is originally Latin, formed of in, and feco "I cut;" the reason of which is, that in some of this tribe, as ants, the body seems to be cut or divided into two; or because the bodies of many, as worms, caterpillars, &c. are composed of different circles, or rings, which are a sort of incision. See Zoology and Entomology.

Of the Kinds of Insects, and where the Collector for the Cabinet may find them. Insects, in general, are known to most people, the systematic distinctions but to few; nor have we any English names for the greatest part of them. The general denominations of beetles, butterflies, moths, flies, bees, wasps, and a few other common names, are all that our language supplies. It would, therefore, be in vain to enumerate the immense variety of genera and species to any person unskilled in the science of entomology: we may, however, give directions under general names where to find each kind.

The class of insects is divided by Linnaeus into seven orders. See Zoology and Entomology.

I. The Coleoptera kind. Many of these (as the scarabaeus or chafer, dermestes or leather-eater, blister or mimick-beetle, flaphylinus or rove-beetle, &c.) are found in and under the dung of animals, especially of cows, horses, and sheep. Some (as lucanus or stag-beetle, cerambix or capricorn beetle, dermestes, &c.) are found in rotten and half-decayed wood, and under the decayed bark of trees. Others (as blister, filpha or carrion beetle, flaphylinus, &c.) on the carcases of animals that have been dead four or five days; on moist bones that have been gnawed by dogs or other animals; on flowers having a fetid smell; and on several kinds of fungous substances, particularly the rotten and most stinking. Others (as byrrhus, turculo or weevil, bruchus or seed-beetle, &c.) may be found in a morning about the bottoms of perpendicular rocks and sand-banks, and also upon the flowers of trees and herbaceous plants. Many kinds (as gyrisus or whirl-beetle, dytiscus or water-beetle, &c.) may be caught in rivers, lakes, and standing pools, by means of a thread-net, with small meshes, on a round wire-loop, fixed at the end of a long pole. In the middle of the day, when the sun shines hot, some (as the coccinella or lady-fly, buprestis or burn-cow, chrysoloma or golden honey-beetle, cantharis or soft-winged-beetle, elater or spring-beetle, neydalis or clipped-winged beetle, &c.) are to be seen on plants and flowers, blighted trees and shrubs. Others (as lampris or glow-worm, &c.) frequent moist meadows, and are best discovered at night, by the shining light which they emit. A great variety sit close on the leaves of plants, particularly of the burdock, elecampane, coltsfoot, dock, thistle, and the like, (as the caffida or tortoise-beetle, &c.); or feed on different kinds of tender herbs (as the meloe or blister-beetle.) Numbers (as the tenebrio or stinking-beetle,) may be found in housetops, dark cellars, damp pits, caves, and subterraneous passages; or on umbelliferous flowers, (as the cerambix, pinus, &c.); or on the trunks as well as on the leaves of trees, in timber-yards, and in the holes of decayed wood. Some (as the leptura or wood-beetle, cicindela or glossy-beetle, &c.) inhabit wild commons, the margins of pools, marshes, and rivulets; and are likewise seen creeping on flags, reeds, and all kinds of water-plants. Multitudes (as the carabus or ground-beetle) live under stones, moss, rubbish, and wrecks near the shores of lakes and rivers. There are found also in bogs, marshes, moist places, pits, holes of the earth, and on stems of trees; and in an evening they crawl plentifully along path-ways after a shower of rain. Some (as the forficula or earwig) may be discovered in the hollow stems of decayed umbelliferous plants and on many sorts of flowers and fruits.

II. Hemiptera. Some of these (as the blatta or cockroach) are found about bake-houses, &c.; others (as the mantis or camel-cricket, gryllus or locust, fulgora, cicada, or flea-locust, cimex or bug, &c.) on grass, and all kinds of field-herbage. Some (as natometla or boat-fly, nepa or water-scorpion, &c.) frequent rivers, lakes, and standing pools.

III. Lepidoptera. In the day, when the sun is warm, butterflies are seen on many sorts of trees, shrubs, plants, and flowers. Moths may be seen in the daytime, sitting on pales, walls, trunks of trees, in shades, out-houses, dry holes, and crevices; on fine evenings, they fly about the places they inhabit in the daytime: some (as the sphinx or hawk-moth) are seen flying in the daytime over the flowers of honeysuckles and other plants with tubular flowers. Insects of this species seldom sit to feed, but continue vibrating on the wing, while they thrust the tongue or proboscis into the flowers.

IV. Neuroptera. Of these, some (as the myrmeleon, hemerobius or pearl-fly, raphidia or camel-fly, &c.) are found in woods, hedges, meadows, sand-banks, walls, pales, fruits, and umbelliferous flowers. Others (as libellula or dragon-fly, ephemera or may-fly, phryganea or spring-fly, &c.) fly about lakes and rivers in the day.

V. Hymenoptera. These, including wasps, bees, &c., frequent hedges, shrubs, flowers, and fruits.

VI. Diptera. Flies of various kinds constitute this clas; of which some (as aetras or gad-fly, musca or fly, tabanus or whame) fly about the tops of trees, little hills, horses, cows, sheep, ditches, dunghills, and every offensive object. Others (as tipula, conops, aetlus or wasp-fly, &c.) are found on all sorts of flowers, particularly those of a fetid smell.

VII. Aptera, or those without wings, comprehend scorpions, spiders, crabs, lobsters, &c.

Of Catching and Preserving Insects for Collections. In the following directions, we shall relate the methods of killing them the most readily, and with the least pain, as the pursuit of this part of natural history hath been often branded with cruelty; and however reasonably the naturalist may exculpate himself by pleading the propriety of submitting to an evil which leads to useful discoveries, yet for wanton cruelty there never can be a just pretext.

1. The first clas, consisting of beetles (coleoptera), are hard-winged. Many kinds fly about in the day, others in the evening, some at night only. They may be caught with a gauze-net, or a pair of forceps covered with gauze. When they are taken, stick a pin through the middle of one of the hard wings, and pass it through the body. They may be killed instantly, by immersion in hot water, as well as in spirit of wine; then stick them on a piece of cork, and afterwards carefully place their legs in a creeping position, and let them continue exposed to the air until all the moisture is evaporated from their bodies. Beetles may also be preserved in spirit of wine, brandy, or rum, closely corked up.

2. Insects of the second clas (hemiptera) may be killed in the same manner as beetles, and likewise by means of a drop of the etherial oil of turpentine applied to the head; or in the manner to be described under the next clas for killing moths.

3. The division of butterflies and moths, (lepidoptera), Insects, as well as all flies with membraneous wings, should be caught with a gauze net, or a pair of gauze forceps; when taken in the forceps, run a pin through the thorax or shoulders, between the forewings. After this is done, take the pin by the head, and remove the forceps, and with the other hand pinch the breast of the insect, and it will immediately die; the wings of butterflies should be expanded, and kept so by the pressure of small slips of paper for a day or two. Moths expand their wings when at rest, and they will naturally take that position.

The larger kinds of these insects will not so readily expire by this method, as by sticking them upon the bottom of a cork exactly fitted to the mouth of a bottle, into which a little sulphur had been put, and by gradually heating the bottle, till an exhalation of the sulphur take place, when the insect instantly dies, without injuring its colours or plumage.

The best method of having the most perfect butterflies is to find out, if possible, the larva or caterpillar of each, by examining the plants, shrubs, or trees, they usually feed upon, or by beating the shrubs and trees with long poles, and thereby shaking the caterpillars into a sheet spread underneath to receive them; to put them into boxes covered with thin canvas, gauze, or cat-gut, and to feed them with the fresh leaves of the tree or herb on which they are found; when they are full grown, they will go into the pupa or chrysalis state, and require then no other care till they come out perfect butterflies, at which time they may be killed, as before directed. Sometimes these insects may be found hanging to walls, pales, and branches of trees, in the chrysalis state.

Moths might likewise be procured more perfect, by collecting the caterpillars, and breeding them in the same manner as butterflies. As the larvae or caterpillars cannot be preserved dry, nor very well kept in spirit, it would be satisfactory if exact drawings could be made of them while they are alive and perfect. It may be necessary to observe, that in breeding these kinds of insects, some earth should be put into the boxes, as likewise some rotten wood in the corners; because, when the caterpillars change into the pupa or chrysalis state, some go into the earth, and continue underground for many months before they come out into the moth state; and some cover themselves with a hard shell, made up of small pieces of rotten wood.

4. The fourth class of insects (neuroptera) may be killed with spirit of wine, oil of turpentine, or by the fumes of sulphur.

5. Those of the next class (bymenoptera) may be killed in the same manner. A pin may be run through one of their wing-shells and body.

6. Insects of the fifth class (diptera) may likewise be killed by spirits, or by fumes of sulphur.

7. Those of the last division (aptera) are in general subjects which may be kept in spirit.

When in search of insects, we should have a box suitable to carry in the pocket, lined with cork at the bottom and top to stick them upon, until they are brought home. If this box be strongly impregnated with camphor, the insects soon become stupified, and are thereby prevented from fluttering and injuring their plumage. Besides a small forceps, the collector should have a large musquito gauze-net, and also a pin-cushion with three or four different sizes of pins to suit the different sizes of insects.

In hot climates insects of every kind, but particularly the larger, are liable to be eaten by ants and other small insects; especially before they are perfectly dry; to avoid this, the piece of cork on which our insects are stuck in order to be dried, should be suspended from the ceiling of a room, by means of a slender string or thread; besmear this thread with bird-lime, or some adhesive substance, to intercept the rapacious vermin of those climes in their pallage along the thread.

After our insects are properly dried, they may be placed in the cabinet or boxes where they are to remain; these boxes should be kept dry; and also made to shut very close, to prevent small insects from destroying them; the bottoms of the boxes should be covered with pitch, or green wax, over which paper may be laid; or, which is better, lined with cork, well impregnated with a solution of corrosive sublimate mercury in a saturated solution of crude sal-ammoniac in water, an ounce of which will dissolve 20 scruples of the sublimate.

The finest collections have been ruined by small insects, and it is impossible to have our cabinets too secure. Such insects as are thus attacked may be fumigated with sulphur, in the manner described for killing moths; if this prove ineffectual, they may be immersed in spirit of wine, without much injuring their fine plumage or colours, and afterwards let them be sprinkled about their bodies and insertions of the wings with the solution above mentioned. But baking the insects in an oven, in the manner described for Birds (under that article), is the most effectual method of extirpating these enemies; however, the utmost caution is requisite in this process in regulating the heat of the oven.

N.B. All kinds of insects having no wings, may be preserved in spirits, brandy, or rum; except crabs, lobsters, and the like, which may conveniently be preserved dry.

Insects giving Root to Plants. Of this we have an account, by Mr Fourgeroux, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences for 1769. The plants, of which Mr Fourgeroux gives an account, are perfectly the reverse of the worm-plant of China, described by Mr Reaumur in the year 1726. For, in that case, a worm fixes its root into the extremity of the plant, and derives nourishment from it. But the plants, of which an account is here given, derive their nourishment from the animals.

The greatest part of the animal-plants which he has seen, grow, he tells us, on the chrysalis of a species of cicada. The plant growing on these insects has got the generic name of clavaria, because its stalks and branches, when it has any, are terminated by tubercles, which give the appearance of little clubs. The root of this plant, in general, covers the body of the insect, and sometimes is even extended over its head. When these productions have for some time been preserved in spirits, the plant and animal may be separated from each other without hurting either. Small grooves, formed by the rings of the animal, may be observed running across the roots of the plant; but no vestige can be found of the root's having anywhere... penetrated the body of the insect. These plants produce fibres differing in length and number. The fibres are terminated by tubercles, which, before the plant arrives at maturity, are solid; but, after that period, they are found punctured, probably by worms which have suffered a metamorphosis upon escaping from them.

According to Mr Fourgeroux, plants grow, not only on the chrysalis of the cicada, but upon the cicada itself. He saw one of this kind upon a cicada brought from Cayenne. The plant, in this case, differed from the clavaria already mentioned. It was a species of fucus, composed of long, white, silky fibres, covering the body of the insect, and extending from seven to eight lines above and below its belly.

The author has found the clavaria growing upon worms. He has found it chiefly upon worms, which, suffering a metamorphosis, become afterwards a small species of May-bug. This chrysalis, he observes, is very different from that of the cicada; and, even in its worm-state, may easily be distinguished from it.

After describing these different species of animal-plants, the author next proceeds to offer his opinion upon this subject. He first considers what had been said by Dr Watson, in the Philosophical Transactions, concerning the vegetating-fly of the Caribbee islands*. Dr Watson's account of these flies is, that they bury themselves about the month of May, and begin to be metamorphosed in June; and that the little plant which grows upon them resembles a branch of coral, is about three inches in height, and carries small protuberances, where worms are generated, which are again converted into flies. The author imagines, that, in this account, Dr Watson has been deceived by the worms, which he has already observed will eat into the clavaria, and undergo a change in the holes which they have there made. Mr Fourgeroux is rather inclined to adopt the opinion of Dr Hill, founded upon observations made at Martinico. There the cicadae are very frequent; and, during their chrysalis state, bury themselves among dead leaves, to wait their metamorphosis. Dr Hill imagines, that the seeds of the clavaria are then attached to them, and are afterwards developed, much in the same manner as the fungus ex pede equino grows upon the hoofs of dead horses.

It may appear astonishing, that the clavaria should attach itself so constantly to the nymphæ of the cicadae in America, as it is not observed to do so in other countries. For this Mr Fourgeroux attempts to account, from viewing the clavaria as a parasite peculiar to this species of insect; from the great number of the nymphæ of cicadae which abound in America; and from the circumstances of the climate and soil, which may render this phenomenon very common there, although it be not observed in Europe.

Insects blown from the Nose. Of this we are furnished with many accounts in the works of medical authors. The fact is confirmed by Dr Monro †, who has received at different times some of these insects from different persons. They were all of the colopendra kind, though not exactly answering to any description of Linnæus. One of these he received from Mr Hill surgeon in Dumfries. It was an inch and a half long; and lived some hours after it was discharged, creeping about slowly on a table. It was then put into ardent spirits, soon after which it died.

Noxious Insects; Means of destroying them, or preventing their Increase. The following remedies we find collected in the Gentleman's Magazine for October 1790.—Of those substances which have been generally observed to be efficacious in driving away or in destroying insects, mercury, and its various preparations, may be reckoned one of the most generally useful. Sulphur is also useful. Oils of all kinds have been often and deservedly recommended. Tobacco is not less remarkable for its utility. Of the application of these in order,

1. Mercury is known to kill or drive away lice from the human body; and it may probably be of equal efficacy in ridding other animals of their insects. For instance, sheep having a small quantity of mercurial ointment rubbed on their skins, on the flanks, between the fore-legs and the body, it may kill or drive away the insect peculiar to them. Sulphur is recommended to be added to the mercurial ointment. Thus not only the insect peculiar to them, but also the scab, may be cured: See the Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, London. Vol. VII. VIII. p. 90. In the Transactions of the same Society, Vol. V. VI. p. 59, Mr Alway directed that, in the winter, the walls, frames, &c. of his green and hot houses should be well washed with the following mixture: Take of corrosive sublimate mercury four ounces, and dissolve it in two gallons of water. These houses had been greatly infested with red-spiders and ants. After having been washed with the above mixture, neither were to be seen next summer. This wash may be used on old garden walls, and to the roots of fruit-trees infested with insects, if made weaker. It may destroy the tender leaves of plants, though not the roots. This wash will effectually destroy that disagreeable insect the bug, and all other insects of a tender cuticle; and it will not in the least hurt the colour of bed-furniture or hangings. Care must be taken, that the wash be applied into every crevice or folding of the furniture with a painter's brush. It will sometimes be necessary to repeat the wash; as some of the ova of bugs may remain concealed, notwithstanding the utmost care.

Some of the West India islands were much infested with large ants, which greatly hurt the sugar-canes. The remedy was, to dissolve corrosive sublimate mercury in rum, in the proportion of two drams to a pint of spirits. This solution was poured on dry powdered sugar; and when the sugar was dried, it was laid in the paths of the ants. They eat it, and were destroyed. Might not this practice be imitated, by laying sugar thus prepared on paper or pieces of thin boards near the roots of fruit-trees infested by insects, especially when the fruit is ripening? The papers or boards might be taken-in during the night, or when it rained. The sugar should be coloured with indigo, or other substance, thereby to mark it as a substance to be avoided by curious idlers.

2. We are informed that a person in Philadelphia employed brimstone in the following manner. Having cleared all round the roots of trees infested with caterpillars or other insects, he strewed some flour of brimstone round the roots, and covered it with a thin sprinkling of fine mould, that it might not be blown away by the wind, yet so that the sun might operate through, and cause the brimstone to fumigate. Thus he destroyed the caterpillars. One pound he found sufficient. Insects sufficient for 200 trees. In that hot climate the sun may perhaps have that effect; but it scarcely will in this. He also employed sulphur in the following manner to drive insects from tall trees. He split the end of a pole, and put in the slit some matches, set them on fire, and held them under the parts of the trees chiefly affected. A pole thus armed, he found, would answer for three or four trees. Brimstone thus mixed with damp straw, and set on fire, for instance, in hop-ground infested with the fly, might be of use to drive away the fly.

The itch is supposed to proceed from a very small insect which nestles under the skin, and proceeds no farther into the habit; and is therefore attended with no dangerous consequences. Brimstone made into an ointment with hogs-lard is a sure remedy.

Sheep are liable to an eruption on the skin, known by the name of the scab. The brimstone, when added to the mercurial ointment recommended for that disorder in the Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Vol. VII. p. 99, might perhaps render the application more efficacious and less dangerous.

3. The natives of hot countries are taught by experience, that an unctuous covering on their bodies prevents the bites of mosquitoes and all gnats. The white inhabitants in such countries are not sufficiently careful in preventing the least stagnant water near their dwellings, in which the mosquitoes are bred; even in the waste water thrown out they are produced. Dr Franklin, by a careful attention to this circumstance, guarded his family in Philadelphia from such insects: one day seeing a number of mosquitoes in his library, he found on inquiry, that one of his servants had taken the cover off a tub placed near his window for receiving rain-water. On such an occasion the remedy is easy, viz. shutting the room up for the day, so that the mosquitoes cannot come at any water, in which time they die. Though this caution may seem trifling to us who live in a mild climate, it is far otherwise in hot countries.

Oils being known to be most efficacious in destroying insects, may not the use of it be extended to the destruction of worms in the bowels of horses, where they may occasion the violent pain they seem sometimes to suffer? If the horse was for some time kept fasting, and a large quantity of oil, suppose a pint, was given, if worms are the cause, the oil may in that case kill them.

Flowers, leaves, and fruit, on plants, are known to be devoured by caterpillars. These are destroyed by oils, which close the lateral pores by which they breathe. For this purpose it is advised, that, on the approach of spring, a cloth dipped in train oil be laid on such parts of the tree in which there is the least appearance of them.

We are informed, in the Memoirs of the Society of Agriculture at Paris, that oil of turpentine, when applied to animals which were covered with insects, destroyed the insects without hurting the animal. The author tried it on several trees, mixed with fine earth so as to incorporate them well, then adding water, still stirring them carefully till the whole was brought to some degree of fluidity. In this mixture he dipped branches of fruit-trees on which there were insects, and hereby destroyed not only the eggs but also the insects, without hurting the leaves. This composition may be got off by washing, or the first heavy shower. From these experiments the author thinks, that oil of turpentine may with equal efficacy be employed for killing various kinds of lice on domestic animals.

We are informed, in the Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Vol. V. p. 45, that Mr Winter, among other experiments on turnip seed, steeped the seed 24 hours in a sufficient quantity of train oil. He then drained the oil from the seed, which he mixed with a quantity of fine sifted earth, and immediately sowed it in drills. When the plants began to appear on the surface, the ground was sown with foot. He found that seed steeped in linseed oil answered equally well. The turnips the least injured by the fly were those that grew from seed steeped as above, which grew so luxuriantly as to produce rough leaves several days prior to the most flourishing of any of his other experiments, and were the better enabled to withstand the fly's attack. The leaves of these turnips were of a darker green, and appeared twice as thick in bulk and luxuriance than the other turnips, and were a considerable deal larger. The seed was drilled an inch and a half deep, and at a foot distance in the rows. Train oil is apt to kill the leaves of plants which have been injured by insects, but linseed oil has not that effect, though equally destructive to the insects. The train oil seems to act both as an oil, and by its disagreeable smell it prevents insects approaching it. In this respect it may be successfully used to prevent field-mice or other vermin preying on acorns, chestnuts, or other seeds steeped in it before they are sown.

When thus giving directions for preventing the fly on turnips, a late experiment should be mentioned, by the disclosing of which a person gained a considerable reward. His secret was, running a roller over the ground early in the morning, while the dew remained on the ground, on the first appearance of the fly. The dew entangled the flies so much, that they could not make their escape, and were therefore crushed to death. As the roller may leave the surface of the earth too hard, some very properly advise to fix some boughs of elder in a gate or hurdle, to be drawn over the field; and if the boughs had been before fumigated with the smoke of tobacco, or tincture of asafoetida, the flies would be the surer. The most certain method of preventing the hurt done by the fly is to raise the plants in a nursery, and at a proper age to transplant them, being carried to the ground in a wheelbarrow filled with manure softened with water so as to admit the plants. This method will secure their more speedy growth. In the nursery the attack of the fly may be prevented by sprinkling foot or quicklime on the ground. The utility of transplanting turnips is evident by the practice of transplanting the turnip-rooted cabbage. They who are discouraged from this practice by the expense attending it, do not reflect that the hoeing is prevented, and the plants grow the better, being set in fresh earth.

4. Before proceeding to direct the use of the last means mentioned, viz. tobacco, for destroying insects in turnips, it may be proper to mention an experiment made by Mr Green, of her majesty's flower-garden at Kew. He contrived a pair of bellows, similar to that employed in recovering people seemingly drowned. It has a cavity Insects cavity in the nozzle, in which some tobacco is put, with a live coal over it. The bellows being then worked, the tobacco is set on fire, and the smoke is directed by any particular spot. A lady was fond of having the misk-rofe in her dressing-room, but was prevented having it on account of the green insects which constantly adhere to that plant. To remedy this inconvenience, Mr Green had a box made large enough to contain a pot in which a plant of the misk-rofe grew. In one end of the box was a hole, to admit the nozzle of the bellows; the bellows was worked, and the smoke was received into the box. When the tobacco was consumed, the nozzle was withdrawn, and a cork being put into the hole, the box thus remained till morning, when the insects were all laid dead on the earth. Being swept off, the plant was in a state fit for a dressing-room. Many plants thus infested with insects may be too large, or otherwise so placed as not to be put into a box. In this case it occurred to the writer of these observations, that being sprinkled with an infusion of tobacco in water might in some degree answer the same purpose. On trial he found it answer, and he thus freed other plants of their insects. He also used it on trees of early access with advantage. Train oil is so inimical to tender plants or leaves, that it destroys them if insects have in the least hurt them; whereas the infusion, instead of killing the leaves, promoted a fresh vegetation.

Fruit trees often become the prey of insects. Those against a wall, or in espaliers, being easily come at, much of the mischief may be prevented by cutting off the leaves so soon as they are observed to be curled; for then fresh eggs are laid on them, probably by butterflies. If sprinkled with the infusion of tobacco, it will prevent their coming to life. After the fruit is formed, the infusion must not be used, lest the taste and smell may remain. The scissors are then the proper remedies, which ladies may employ as amusement, and may thereby present fruit to their friends of their own preserving. A lye of the ash of plants sprinkled on the leaves may have a good effect, as also on other pot-herbs, which are often the prey of caterpillars. As many insects, besides those bred on the leaves or in the walls, may destroy the fruit, the sugar with the corrosive sublimate, as already described, may be laid in the way of other insects, to all which it will prove a speedy death. Diligent inspection into their retreats is the most certain means of preventing the loss sustained by snails. Ants are prevented rising up the trees, by laying round the roots powdered chalk, or any other substance which by entangling their feet prevents their crossing it. Care should be taken to destroy their nests every where near the garden.

Hops are now become an article of so great consequence, that it deserves our particular attention. Early in its growth, when the vines begin to ascend the poles, a black fly preys on its leaves, frequently in such numbers, as, by destroying the leaves, to interrupt the vegetation, much of the food of plants being absorbed by the leaves. The infusion of tobacco destroys them, or at least drives them away so effectually, that a plant almost totally stripped of its leaves has put out fresh leaves after the use of it. If care be not taken, they will again fall on the fresh leaves. As the flies lodge on the lower side of the leaves, they are protected from storms of rain, and therefore the infusion must be driven upwards by a forcing pump. As it is said that the expense of tobacco is too great, perhaps lime-water, or even water by itself, driven strongly against the leaves, might drive them away. The labour attending such experiments in a large plantation discourages others, without reflecting that, if such means are used early, the flies may more easily be got rid of. Free ventilation is undoubtedly beneficial to all plants; and hence perhaps the particular advantages of drilling corn in rows a little distant. If alleys somewhat larger than common were made in the plantations of hops, there might be sufficient spaces left where the alleys cross one another to admit of setting damp straw, or other materials mixed with brimstone, foot, &c., on fire. Smoke itself is said to prevent the flies, and if so, it will fill act more powerfully when mixed with such materials. It has been observed in Sweden, that the hops grow naturally among heaps of stones or fragments of rocks. They therefore advise to cover the ground round their roots with stones, which will prevent the insects laying their eggs near the roots in the ground, where they lay them to be protected during the winter. The stones will also preserve moisture at the roots during the summer. A rope cannot be drawn across a plantation of hops, as it can across a field of corn, in case of mildew. Here water to wash off the clammy juice that entices and feeds insects seems to be the only remedy. The plantation being well ventilated, may at least prevent the frequency of it. The forcing pump will most effectually wash off this exudation.

Cruelty to Insects. It does not appear upon what principle of reason and justice it is, that mankind have founded their right over the lives of every creature that is placed in a subordinate rank of being to themselves. Whatever claim they may have in right of food and self-defence (to which ought we to add the purposes of the naturalist, explained above?) did they extend their privilege no farther than those articles would reasonably carry them, numberless beings might enjoy their lives in peace, who are now hurried out of them by the most wanton and unnecessary cruelties. It is surely difficult to discover why it should be thoughtless inhuman to crush to death a harmless insect, whose single offence is that he eats that food which nature has prepared for his sustenance, than it would be were we to kill any bulky creature for the same reason. There are few tempers so hardened to the impressions of humanity, as not to shudder at the thought of the latter; and yet the former is universally practised without the least check of compassion. This seems to arise from the gross error of supposing, that every creature is really in itself contemptible, which happens to be clothed with a body infinitely disproportionate to our own, not considering that great and little are merely relative terms. But the inimitable Shakespear would teach us, that

—the poor beetle that we tread upon, In corporal suff'rance, feels a pang as great As when a giant dies.

And indeed there is every reason to believe that the sensations of many insects are as exquisite as those of creatures of far more enlarged dimensions, perhaps even more so. The millipede, for instance, rolls itself round round upon the slightest touch, and the snail gathers in her horns upon the least approach of our hand. Are not these the strongest indications of their sensibility? and is it any evidence of ours, that we are not therefore induced to treat them with a more sympathizing tenderness?

Montaigne remarks, that there is a certain claim of kindness and benevolence which every species of creatures has a right to from us. It is to be regretted that this general maxim is not more attended to in the affair of education, and pressed home upon tender minds in its full extent and latitude. We are far, indeed, from thinking, that the early delight which children discover in tormenting flies, &c., is a mark of any innate cruelty of temper, because this turn may be accounted for on other principles; and it is entertaining unworthy notions of the Deity, to suppose he forms mankind with a propensity to the most detestable of all dispositions: but most certainly by being unrestrained in sports of this kind, they may acquire by habit, what they never would have learned from nature, and grow up into a confirmed inattention to every kind of suffering but their own. Accordingly the supreme court of judicature at Athens thought an instance of this sort not below its cognizance, and punished a boy for putting out the eyes of a poor bird that had unhappily fallen into his hands.

It might be of service, therefore, it should seem, in order to awaken as early as possible in children an extensive sense of humanity, to give them a view of several sorts of insects as they may be magnified by the assistance of glasses, and to show them that the same evident marks of wisdom and goodness prevail in the formation of the minutest insect, as in that of the most enormous leviathan: that they are equally furnished with whatever is necessary, not only to the preservation, but the happiness of their beings in that class of existence to which Providence has assigned them: in a word, that the whole construction of their respective organs distinctly proclaims them the objects of the divine benevolence, and therefore that they justly ought to be so of ours.