However far withdrawn into the centre of the pea, the Bruchus, whether larvae or nymph, is reached by the long oviduct.  It receives an egg in its tender flesh, and the thing is done.  Without possibility of defence, since it is by now a somnolent grub or a helpless pupa, the embryo weevil is eaten until nothing but skin remains.  What a pity that we cannot at will assist the multiplication of this eager exterminator!  Alas! our assistants have got us in a vicious circle, for if we wished to obtain the help of any great number of Chalcidians we should be obliged in the first place to breed a multiplicity of Bruchidae.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 3:  From Social Life in the Insect World, translated by Bernard Miall, Chapter XVIII.  The Century Company, New York, 1913.]

[Footnote 4:  This classification is now superseded; the Pea and Bee Weevils—­Bruchus pisi and Bruchus lenti—­are classed as Bruchidae, in the series of Phytophaga.  Most of the other weevils are classed as Curculionidae, series Rhyncophora.—­(Trans.)]

THE EXPOSITION OF A MANUFACTURING PROCESS

MODERN PAPER-MAKING[5]

J.W.  Butler Paper Company

Though the steady march of progress and invention has given to the modern paper-maker marvelous machines by which the output is increased a thousandfold over that of the old, slow methods, he still has many of the same difficulties to overcome that confronted his predecessor.  While the use of wood pulp has greatly changed the conditions as regards the cheaper grades of this staple, the ragman is to-day almost as important to the manufacturer of the higher grades as he was one hundred years ago when the saving of rags was inculcated as a domestic virtue and a patriotic duty.  Methods have changed, but the material remains the same.  In a complete modern mill making writing and other high-grade papers, the process begins with unsightly rags as the material from which to form the white sheets that are to receive upon their spotless polished surface the thoughts of philosophers and statesmen, the tender messages of affection, the counsels and admonitions of ministers, the decisions of grave and learned judges, and all the

    Wisdom of things, mysterious, divine, that
    Illustriously doth on paper shine,

as was duly set forth in rhyme by the Boston News Letter in 1769.  “The bell cart will go through Boston about the end of next month,” it announced, and appealed to the inhabitants of that modern seat of learning and philosophy to save their rags for the occasion, and thus encourage the industry.