CURIOUS FACTS
IN THE
HISTORY OF INSECTS;
INCLUDING SPIDERS AND SCORPIONS.
A
COMPLETE COLLECTION OF THE LEGENDS, SUPERSTITIONS, BELIEFS,
AND OMINOUS SIGNS CONNECTED WITH INSECTS; TOGETHER
WITH THEIR USES IN MEDICINE, ART, AND AS FOOD;
AND A SUMMARY OF THEIR REMARKABLE
INJURIES AND APPEARANCES.
BY
FRANK COWAN.
PHILADELPHIA:
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
1865.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865,
by J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
TO
MISS CATHARINE STOY
THE FOLLOWING PAGES
ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED
BY HER FRIEND,
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
In the early part of the winter of 1863–4, having the free use of the Congressional Library at Washington, I began the compilation of the present work. It was my prime intent, and one which I have endeavored to follow most carefully, to attach some fact, whatever might be its nature, to as many Insects as possible, to increase the interest, in a commonplace way, of the science of Entomology. I noticed the pleasurable satisfaction I invariably felt when I came accidentally upon any extra-scientific fact, and how the association fixed the particular Insect, to which it related, ineffaceably upon my memory. To collect and group, then, all these facts together, to remember many Insects as easily as one,—was a natural thought; and as this had never been done, but to a very limited extent, I undertook it myself.
The facts contained in this volume are supposed to be purely historical, or rather not to belong to the natural history of Insects, namely, their anatomy, habits, classification, etc. They have been collected mostly from Chronicles, Histories, Books of Travels, and such like works, which, at first view, seem to be totally foreign to Insects: and were only discovered by examination of the indexes and tables of contents.