The locust plague and its suppression / by Æneas Munro.

  • Munro, Aeneas.
Date:
[1899]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The locust plague and its suppression / by Æneas Munro. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    first sight appears. No doubt there is much that we do not yet know regarding the home and some of the intimate habits of the locust, but there is also much that we can and should know respecting the insect and what happens when a number of them visit us in force. In point of fact the subject is a large one, and the difficulty will be to keep it within reasonable limits and at the same time to give a full and faithful account of the insect and its habits so far as we know them. To keep back interesting details or such details as may excite thought would be manifestly wrong. 18. A question, too, of pressing importance.—Books have been written on insects, exceedingly interesting and useful books, from a scientific point of view. We have books, for example, on ants, others on bees, still others on domestic insects, another on worms, and so on. Can any one of these insects surpass by comparison, in point of importance, the locust, so far as the general well-being of the community, or the urgent necessity to have it carefully studied, is concerned ? Why, the answer is self-evident. The locust question is of commanding and pressing importance throughout the whole of Africa—the Cape Colony, Natal, Zululand, Basutoland, the Orange Free State, the Transvaal, the lands of the Chartered Company, and indeed every corner of Africa—the north and centre as well as the south — from the north to the south, and from the east to the west. 19. The Subject a personal one.—The locusts are a devouring or devastating pest, and cause desolation and misery wherever they visit. Is, then, the locust or the plague caused by a visitation of an invading “army” of locusts of less moment and interest to us when it threatens to deprive us, and is actually depriving us, of the very means of existence, than the insects to which I have referred as having had the honour of books being published concerning them ? Surely not. 20. This work educative.—The specific object, then, I have in view is to attempt to lay before the public what we know of this interesting insect and the various natural and artificial means used for combating the plague. This, therefore, is an educative work first, and afterwards a suggestive one. Now, this is by no means an easy or a short work. It must be admitted, by anyone who has given any consideration to the subject-matter in hand, that it is a most important one, and one in which the welfare and prosperity of Africa (or the specific country that is visited) is very much and intimately con- cerned. 21. Object in writing this work.—About 90 per cent, probably of my readers, or indeed the public, have doubtless not carefully or specially studied the subject, because possibly they have not had the
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