Chapter VIII: Letter IV: Injuries Caused by Insects (3)

[131] I am informed by my learned friend Alexander MacLeay, Esq. late Secretary to the Linnean Society, that, in the north of Scotland, the insect of the itch is well known, and easily discovered and extracted.

[132] This opinion Dr. Bateman thinks probably the true one. _Cutan. Dis._ 197.

[133] It may be mentioned here as a remarkable fact, that the _Acarus Scabiei_ was discovered by M. Latreille upon a New Holland quadruped (_Phascolomys fusca_, Geoffr.) of the Marsupian tribe. _N. Dict. d'Hist. Nat._ xxi. 222.

[134] _Amœn. Ac._ ubi supr. 101.

[135] _Traités de Chirurgie_, &c. Leipsig. 1792.

[136] _Mém. Apterolog._ 78.

[137] _In Artaxerx._

[138] _Il._ χ. l. 599. ω l. 414.

[139] Τα δε εντομα παντα σκωληκοτοκει. _De Generat. Animal._ l. 2. c. 1.

[140] _Il._ υ. l. 654-5.

[141] Γης εντερα. _De Animal. Incessu_, c. 9. _De Generat. Animal._ l. 3. c. 11.

[142] Mark ix. 44. 46. 48.

[143] Σκωληκοβρωτος. Acts xii. 23.

[144] Linn. _Lach. Lapp._ ii. 32. note *.

[145] Latreille after De Geer (vii. 153--.) supposes the _Pique_ and _Nigua_ of Ulloa to be synonymous with _Ixodes americanus_, L. _Hist. Nat._ vii. 364. but it is evident from _Ulloa's_ description (_Voy._ i. 63. Engl. Trans.) that they are synonymous with the _Chigoe_, or _Pulex penetrans_.

[146] See above p. 50.

[147] Captain Hancock, late commander of His Majesty's ship the Foudroyant, to whose friendly exertions I am indebted for one of the finest collections of Brazil insects ever brought to England, informs me that they will attack any exposed part of the body. He had them once in his hand.

[148] Piso and Margr. _Ind._ 289.

[149] p. 65.

[150] _Personal Narrative_, E. T. v. 101.

[151] _Natural. Miscell._, ii. t. 42.

[152] Lindley in the _Royal Military Chronicle_ for March 1815, p. 459.

[153] I owe this information to the late Robinson Kittoe, Esq. formerly clerk of the Cheque in the King's Yard, Woolwich.

[154] Lesser _L._ ii. 222, note *.

[155] De Geer, vii. 154-60.

[156] _Theatr. Ins._ 270. This happened in 1503; which circumstance refutes Southall's opinion that bugs were not known in England before 1670.

[157] Rai. _Hist. Ins._ 7. Mouffet. 269. They were called also _punez_, from the French _punaise_.

[158] Hence our English word _Bug-bear_. In Matthews's _Bible_, Ps. xci. 5. is rendered, "Thou shalt not nede to be afraid of any _bugs_ by night." The word in this sense often occurs in Shakespear. _Winter's Tale_, act iii. sc. 2. 3. _Hen._ VI. act v. sc. 2. _Hamlet_, act v. sc. 2. See Douce's _Illustrations of Shakespear_, i. 329.

[159] The Banian hospital at Surat is a most remarkable institution. At my visit, the hospital contained horses, mules, oxen, sheep, goats, monkeys, poultry, pigeons, and a variety of birds. The most extraordinary ward was that appropriated to rats and mice, _bugs_, and other noxious vermin. The overseers of the hospital frequently hire beggars from the streets, for a stipulated sum, to pass a night amongst the _fleas_, _lice_, and _bugs_, on the express condition of suffering them to enjoy their feast without molestation. Forbes's _Oriental Memoirs_.

[160] Nicholson's _Journal_, xvii. 40.

[161] Proboscis in cutem intrusa acerrimum dolorem excitat, qui tamen brevi cessat. Rai. _Hist. Ins._ 58.

[162] One took eight drops from Reaumur, iv. 230. PLATE VII. FIG. 5.

[163] Bartram's _Travels_, 383.

[164] i. 127. The West India sand-fly was noticed by the late Robinson Kittoe, Esq., who however did not recollect their fetching blood.

[165] See above, p. 48-49.

[166] _Travels_, &c. i. 126.

[167] See Curtis' _Brit. Ent._ t. 122.

[168] It has been generally supposed by naturalists, that the Mosquitos of America belong to the Linnean genus _Culex_; but the celebrated traveller Humboldt asserts that the term _Mosquito_, signifying a _little fly_, is applied there to a _Simulium_, Latr. (_Simulia_, Meig.), and that the _Culices_, which are equally numerous and annoying, are called _Zancudoes_, which means _long legs_. The former, he says, are what the French call _Moustiques_, and the latter _Maringouins_. _Personal Narrative_, E. T. v. 93.

[169] Plin. _Hist. Nat._ l. xi. c. 28. Aristot. _Hist. Animal._ l. i. c. 5.

[170] Pliny was aware of this double office of the proboscis of a gnat, and has well described it. "Telum vero perfodiendo tergori quo spiculavit ingenio? Atque ut in capaci, cum cerni non possit exilitas, ita reciproca geminavit arte, ut _fodiendo_ acuminatum pariter _sorbendoque_ fistulosum esset." _Hist. Nat._ l. xi. c. 2.

[171] Humboldt has described several South American species. _Personal Narrative_, v. 97. note *. Engl. Tr.

[172] Germar's _Magazin der Entomologie_, i. 137.

[173] _Philos. Trans._ 1767, 111-13. I once witnessed a similar appearance at Maidstone in Kent.

[174] Weld's _Travels_, 8vo. edit. 205. Yet Mouffet affirms the same: "Morsu crudeles et venenati, triplices caligas, imo _ocreas_, item perforantes." 81.

[175] Acerbi's _Travels_, ii. 5. 34-5. 51. Linn. _Flor. Lapp._ 380-1. _Lach. Lapp._ ii. 108. De Geer, vi. 303-4.

[176] Reaum. iv. 573.

[177] Dr. Clarke's _Travels_, i. 388.

[178] Jackson's _Marocco_, 57.

[179] _Travels_, ii. 93. Mr. W. S. MacLeay, in a letter I recently received from him, observes, speaking of his residence at the Havana; "The disagreeables are ants, scorpions, mygales, and mosquitos. The latter were quite a pest on my first arrival within the tropics; but now I mind them about as much as I did _gnats_ in England."

[180] Humboldt's _Personal Narrative_, E. T. v. 87-. Most writers by the term mosquitos mean gnats; and for them it is here chiefly employed, but may be regarded as including both plagues.

[181] Theodorit. _Hist. Eccl._ 1. ii. c. 30.

[182] Mouffet, 85. Amoreux, 119.

[183] Viz. _Mosquito_ Bay in St. Christopher's; _Mosquitos_, a town in the Island of Cuba; and the _Mosquito_ country in North America.

[184] Mouffet, 85.

[185] Deut. vii. 20. Josh. xxiv. 12.

[186] Amoreux, 242.

[187] _Philos. Trans._ i. 201.

[188] Hawkesworth's _Cook_, iii. 223.

[189] Stedman, ii. 94.

[190] Bingley, iii. 385, first edit.

[191] Knox's _Ceylon_, 24.

[192] Stedman, ii. 142.

[193] Ulloa's _Voy._ i. 61, 62. Dr. Clarke's _Travels_, i. 486. Amoreux, 197. Mr. W. S. MacLeay relates to me that soon after his arrival at the Havana he was stung by an immense scorpion, but was agreeably surprised to find the pain considerably less than the sting of a wasp, and of incomparably shorter duration.

[194] Andrews's _Anecdotes_, 427. See on the subject of Scorpions Amoreux, 41-54. 176-205.

[195] Fab. _Suppl._ 294. 2.

[196] _Catal. Ham._ 1797. 151-195.

[197] PLATE VII. FIG. 13. _a"_.

[198] Ulloa's _Voyage_, i. 61.

[199] Amoreux, 217-226. See also 67-70.

[200] p. 31.

[201] Jackson's _Marocco_, second edit.

[202] Ulloa, i. 64. Probably the _Cafafi_, a white fly noticed by Humboldt, is synonymous with this of Ulloa, which could only be prevented from creeping between the threads of the curtains by keeping them wet. _Personal Narrative_, E. T. v. 107.

[203] _Lach. Lapp._ i. 208, 209. _Fl. Lapp._ 382, 383. It appears however, from other authors, that they do bite.

[204] Young's _Travels in France_, i. 298. These flies are equally troublesome and tormenting in Sweden. See _Amœn. Acad._ iii. 343.

[205] Cowhage has been administered with success as an _anthelminthic_, as has likewise spun glass pounded; the spicula of these substances destroying the worms. The hair of the caterpillars here alluded to, and perhaps also of the larva of _Euprepia Caja_, (the Tiger-Moth,) might probably be equally efficacious.

[206] Reaum. ii. 191-5.

[207] Mouffet, 185. Plin. _Hist. Nat._ l. xxxviii. c. 9. Amoreux, 158.

[208] Amoreux, 210-212.

[209] Ulloa's Voyage, b. vi. c. 3. Hamilton (_Travels in Colombia_, as quoted in the Literary Gazette, April 28, 1827.) also mentions a spider called the _Caya_, rather large, found in the broken ground and among the rocks, from the body of which a poison so active is emitted, that men and mules have died in an hour or two after the venomous moisture had fallen on them. This is evidently the same insect with that mentioned by Ulloa, and confirms the above account of its venomous effects.

[210] Waterton (_Wanderings in S. America_, 53.) gives the recipe by which the Macousho Indians prepare the poison, in which they dip their arrows. It consists of a vine called the Wourali, which is the principal ingredient; the roots and stalks of some other plants; two species of ants, the sting of one of which is so venomous that it produces a fever; a quantity of the strongest Indian pepper (_Capsicum_), and the pounded fangs of two kinds of serpents.

[211] Tulpius, _Obs. Med._ l. ii. c. 51. t. 7. f. 3. _Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journ._ n. 35. 42-48. Derham, _Physic. Theol._ 378. note _b._ Lowthorp, _Philos. Trans._ iii. 135.

[212] _Philos. Trans._ 1665. x. 391. Shaw's _Abridg._ ii. 224.

[213] Mead, _Med. Sacr._ 105.

[214] _London Medical Review_, v. 340.

[215] _Philos. Trans._ ubi supra.

[216] Fulvius Angelinus et Vincentius Alsarius _De verme admirando per nares egresso_. Ravennæ 1610.

[217] Azara, 217. I cannot help suspecting this to be synonymous with the _Œstrus Hominis_ next mentioned.

[218] From Pallas _N. Nord. Beytr._ i. 157.

[219] _Essai sur la Géograph. des Plantes_, 136.

[220] Clark in _Linn. Trans._ iii. 323, note.

[221] Leeuw. _Epist._ Oct. 17, 1687.

[222] _Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journ._ ubi supra. De Geer, vi. 26, 27.

[223] 216.

[224] Lempriere _On the Diseases of the Army in Jamaica_, ii. 182.

[225] In passing through this parish last spring, I inquired of the mail-coachman whether he had heard of this story; and he said the fact was well known.

[226] _Philos. Mag._ ix. 366.

[227] Bonnet, v. 144.

[228] _Mém. Apterolog._ 79.

[229] _Universal History_, iv. 70. Ed. 1779.

[230] Wisd. xvii. 12.