Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1875-08-06
GbeDermont 4Banit.
YRATTLEBORO:
FRIDAY EVENING, AUGUST 6, 1875.
Economical value Of insects.

from one of which we take the following,
in regard TO their uses:
The Hottentots always rejoice in tho ar
rival OF swarm of locusts, eat them in
great numbers and make soup of their
eggs. They are brought in wagon loads to
ZEE in Africa, and are preserved by salt
ing, or smoking. The Moors prefer them
to pigeons, and a person may eat two or
three hundred without feeling any lief
fects. They are usually boiled in water
half an hour, after throwing away the
head, legs and wings, and then fried with
a little vinegar. Their use as food is allud-
ed to in Scripture, where the food of John
the Baptist is said to have been locusts and
wild honey. The ancentj Greeks consid-
cred grasshoppers as a great luxury, and
the Chinese, who are unwilling to waste
anything, afler unwinding the silk from
the cocoons Of the silk worm, send the in-
sect to the table. The Hottentots again
parch the white ants and eat them as we do
corn. Mr.. Smeathman tells us that they
taste like cream and sugar, or almond
cakes. There arc many other instances OF
insects which serve for food to different
nations, though with the exception of few
individuals, as Lalaude, the great astrono-
mer, who was fond of spiders, their use is
generally discarded by those whom we
consider the most refined. We say gener-
ally, for one species, the cheese mite, is Of
ten considered luxury even among these.
Formerly great variety of insects were
used in medicine, and were considered in
g., -,OWdar
of silkworm was considered excellent for
commissions, carvings to strengthen the
nerves, fly water for Affections of the eyes,
cks for st. Anthony's FIRE, lady-birds for
the collie and measles, beetles for the by
drophobia, ants for deafness and weevils
for the toothache. These notions are now
left to the uneducated, where some of them
are still in force and very disgusting in
sect, vulgarly known by the name of the
sow-bug, was, within The memory of ma
ny, and perhaps still is, occasionally pre-
scribed. Some of them, however, are still
used, or at least their productions. Spi-
ders-webs have been lately recommended
for the ague, and we could spare almost
anything better from our materia medica,
than the various species of blistering flies.
They are quite important as supplying va
rious articles of domestic economy, or orn-
ament. Some in some countries yield soap,
and others oil. In China the ladies en-
broider their dresses with the wing caps Of
several brilliant beetles, and in India fire.
flies en- closed in gauze are used as orna-
ments for the head.
But these are small matters, and there
are others much more important; one Of
these is the gall, or nut gall as ii is COM
monty called, used for the manufacture oil
ink and black dye, and for which no good
substitute is known. These gals are the
habitation of a species of insect, which
lives upon the oak of Turkey in Asia, from
the ports of which 1t is exported in great
numbers. Another dyeing article, cochi-
neal, is an insect of South America. The
quantity of these annually exported from
South America is said to he worth there,
upwards of 100000 pounds sterling, oil
over two millions of dollars, and the Direc-
tors of the English East India company
offered some years since a reward of &C.,
900 to any one who should introduce the
most valuable species into their settle
ments. Another important article in the
arts, which is the manufacture of insects,
is lac, which is used in the making OF
sealing wax, spirit varnishes and japan
ware, the cementing of cracked china and
in dyeing, in which art it is found to be g
good substitute for cochineal.
There is still another article for which We
are in debted 10 insects, which is yet more
io ell 10 ba OF ~.
ticle in many large provinces of the world
gives employment TO tens of thousands o.
the h uman race, in its first production and
transportation, and furnishes subsistence
to hundreds of thousands more in its final
manufacture, thus becoming one of the
most important instruments in the circula
ton of national wealth. The method o.
procuring this valuable article was known
to the Chinese and Indians some thousand
years ago, but was never introduced into
Europe till about $50 years AFTER the Chris
tian era, when the eggs of the silkworn
were brought by some monks from India
to Constantinople, where they speedily
multiplied, and were thence introduced
into Italy and afterwards into France. The
common use of it is comparatively late in
Great Britain. Queen Elizabeth was among
the first who wore silk stockings in Eng
land, and James her Successor, when king
of Scotland, was obliged to borrow pail
of the earl of Mar, to appear in before the
English ambassador; exclaiming wher
the Earl hesitated, "Ye would not, sure
have your king appear scrub before
strangers" When we consider the abun
dance and common use of silk at the pres.
ent, we are apt TO consider ourselves very
far in advance of those times, and 1t is moi
improbable that future generations will
find themselves much In advance of US in
some similar matters.
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