But the white ants, wherever they prevail, are a still worse plague than either of these insects—they are the great calamity, as Linné terms them, of both the Indies. When they find their way into houses or warehouses, nothing less hard than metal or glass escapes their ravages. Their favourite food, however, is wood of all kinds, except the teak (Tectona grandis) and iron-wood (Sideroxylon), which are the only sorts known that they will not touch[449]; and so infinite are the multitudes of the assailants, and such is the excellence of their tools, that all the timber-work of a spacious apartment is often destroyed by them in a few nights. Exteriorly, however, every thing appears as if untouched; for these wary depredators, and this is what constitutes the greatest singularity of their history, carry on all their operations by sap and mine, destroying first the inside of solid substances, and scarcely ever attacking their outside, until first they have concealed it and their operations with a coat of clay. A general similarity runs through the proceedings of the whole tribe; but the large African species, (called by Smeathman Termes bellicosus,) T. fatalis is the most formidable. These insects live in large clay nests, from whence they excavate tunnels all round, often to the extent of several hundred feet; from these they will descend a considerable depth below the foundation of a house, and rise again through the floors; or, boring through the posts and supports of the building, enter the roof, and construct there their galleries in various directions. If a post be a convenient path to the roof, or has any weight to support, which how they discover is not easily conjectured, they will fill it with their mortar, leaving only a trackway for themselves; and thus, as it were, convert it from wood into stone as hard as many kinds of free-stone. In this manner they soon destroy houses, and sometimes even whole villages when deserted by their inhabitants, so that in two or three years not a vestige of them will remain.
These insidious insects are not less expeditious in destroying the wainscoting, shelves, and other fixtures of a house than the house itself. With the most consummate art and skill they eat away all the inside of what they attack, except a few fibres here and there which exactly suffice to keep the two sides, or top and bottom, connected, so as to retain the appearance of solidity after the reality is gone; and all the while they carefully avoid perforating the surface, unless a book or any other thing that tempts them should be standing upon it. Kæmpfer, speaking of the white ants of Japan, gives a remarkable instance of the rapidity with which these miners proceed. Upon rising one morning he observed that one of their galleries of the thickness of his little finger had been formed across his table; and, upon a further examination, he found that they had bored a passage of that thickness up one foot of the table, formed a gallery across it, and then pierced down another foot into the floor: all this was done in the few hours that intervened between his retiring to rest and his rising[450]. They make their way also with the greatest ease into trunks and boxes, even though made of mahogany, and destroy papers and every thing they contain, constructing their galleries and sometimes taking up their abode in them. Hence, as Humboldt informs us, throughout all the warmer parts of equinoctial America, where these and other destructive insects abound, it is infinitely rare to find papers which go fifty or sixty years back[451]. In one night they will devour all the boots and shoes that are left in their way; cloth, linen, or books are equally to their taste; but they will not eat cotton, as Captain Green informs me. I myself have to deplore that they entirely consumed a collection of insects made for me by a friend in India, more especially as it sickened him of the employment. In a word, scarcely any thing, as I said before, but metal or stone comes amiss to them. Mr. Smeathman relates, that a party of them once took a fancy to a pipe of fine old Madeira, not for the sake of the wine, almost the whole of which they let out, but of the staves, which however I suppose were strongly imbued with it, and perhaps on that account were not less to the taste of our epicure Termites. Having left a compound microscope in a warehouse at Tobago for a few months, on his return he found that a colony of a small species of white ant had established themselves in it, and had devoured most of the wood-work, leaving little besides the metal and glasses[452]. A shorter period sufficed for their demolition of some of Mr. Forbes's furniture. On surveying a room which had been locked up during an absence of a few weeks, he observed a number of advanced works in various directions towards some prints and drawings in English frames; the glasses appeared to be uncommonly dull, and the frames covered with dust. "On attempting," says he, "to wipe it off, I was astonished to find the glasses fixed to the wall, not suspended in frames as I left them, but completely surrounded by an incrustation cemented by the white ants, who had actually eaten up the deal frames and back-boards, and the greater part of the paper, and left the glasses upheld by the incrustation, or covered way, which they had formed during their depredation[453]." It is even asserted that the superb residence of the Governor-General at Calcutta, which cost the East India Company such immense sums, is now rapidly going to decay in consequence of the attacks of these insects[454].—But not content with the dominions they have acquired, and the cities they have laid low on Terra Firma, encouraged by success the white ants have also aimed at the sovereignty of the ocean, and once had the hardihood to attack even a British ship of the line; and, in spite of the efforts of her commander and his valiant crew, having boarded they got possession of her, and handled her so roughly, that when brought into port, being no longer fit for service, she was obliged to be broken up[455].
And here, I think, I see you throw aside my papers, and hear you exclaim—"Will this enumeration of scourges, plagues, and torments never be finished? Was the whole insect race created merely with punitive views, and to mar the fair face of universal nature? Are they all, as our Saviour said figuratively of one genus, the scorpion, the powerful agents and instruments of the great enemy of mankind[456]?" If you view the subject in another light, you will soon, my friend, be convinced that, instead of this, insects generally answer the most beneficial ends, and promote in various ways, and in an extraordinary degree, the welfare of man and animals; and that the series of evils I have been engaged in enumerating mostly occur partially, and where they exceed their natural limits; God permitting this occasionally to take place, not merely with punitive views, but also to show us what mighty effects he can produce by instruments seemingly the most insignificant: thus calling upon us to glorify his power, wisdom, and goodness, so evidently manifested whether he relaxes or draws tight the reins by which he guides insects in their course, and regulates their progress; and more particularly to acknowledge his overruling Providence so conspicuously exhibited by his measuring them, as it were, and weighing them, and telling them out, so that, their numbers, forces and powers being annually proportioned to the work he has prescribed to them, they may neither exceed his purpose nor fall short of it.
From the picture I have drawn, and I assure you it is not overcharged, you will be disposed to admit, however, the empire of insects over the works of creation, and to own that our prosperity, comfort and happiness are intimately connected with them; and consequently that the knowledge and study of them may be extremely useful and necessary to promote these desirable ends, since the knowledge of the cause of any evil is always a principal, if not an indispensable, step towards a remedy.
I shall now bid adieu to this unpromising subject, which has so long occupied my pen, and I fear wearied your attention, and in my next bring before you a more agreeable scene, in which you will behold the benefits we receive by the ministry of insects.
I am, &c.