Chapter I: Preface

The contents of this little book hardly justify its title. There are whole ranges of ‘Minor Horrors of War’ left untouched in the following chapters. The minor poets, the pamphlets of the professors, the people who write to the papers about ‘Kultur’ and think that this is the German for Matthew Arnold’s over-worked word ‘Culture,’ the half-hysterical ladies who offer white feathers to youths whose hearts are breaking because medical officer after medical officer has refused them the desire of their young lives to serve their country. Surely, as Carlyle taught us, ‘_There is no animal so strange as man!_’

These ‘Minor Horrors of War,’ and many besides, have for the moment been neglected in favour of certain others which attack the bodies, the food, or the accoutrements of the men who are giving all that they have to give, even unto their lives, for their homes and for their country.

I deal with certain little Invertebrata: animals which work in darkness and in stealth, little animals which in times of Peace we politely ignore, yet little animals which in times of War may make or unmake an army corps. As that wise old Greek, Aristotle, wrote—and he knew quite a lot about them—‘_One should not be childishly contemptuous of the study of the most insignificant animal. For there is something marvellous in all natural objects._’

We are shy of mentioning these organisms in times of Peace; but all of them are within the cognisance of every medical officer of health and of every police-court missionary. These gentlemen do not talk about them in general society: the subject is as a rule ‘taboo.’ Yet if we face these troubles with courage and frankness, they can be overcome. As ‘Emigration Jane’ says: ‘_Well, there’s nothink lower than Nature, an’ She Goes as ’Igh as ’Eaven._’

I confess that these articles have been written in a certain spirit of gaiety. This is the reflex of the spirit of those who have gone to the Front and of my fellow countrymen in general. For more years than I care to remember, the spirit of Great Britain and of Ireland had been sombre, self-distrusting—we were till half a year ago far too ‘_conscious of each other’s infirmities_’; but with the outbreak of the War everything changed. Our nearest relatives, our dearest friends, are dead, or dying, or wounded, or prisoners; but we at home at once caught the spirit of those who have died or have suffered for us abroad, and we have kept and still keep a high heart. As Mrs. Aberdeen, the immortal ‘bedmaker’ at King’s College, Cambridge, said: _But surely, Miss, the world being what it is, the longer one is able to laugh in it, the better._’ Mrs. Aberdeen spoke in times of Peace; but I feel that that indomitable old lady would have said the same in times of War.

These chapters first appeared in the columns of the _British Medical Journal_. I very gratefully thank the editor and the proprietors of that Journal for their permission to reprint them.

A. E. SHIPLEY.

CHRIST’S COLLEGE LODGE,
CAMBRIDGE.

_February 14, 1915._

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE LOUSE (_Pediculus_) 1

II. THE BED-BUG (_Cimex lectularius_) 23

III. THE FLEA (_Pulex irritans_) 35

IV. THE FLOUR-MOTH (_Ephestia kühniella_) 46

V. FLIES: THE HOUSE-FLY (_Musca domestica_) 57

VI. FLIES: THE BLUE-BOTTLE (_Calliphora erythrocephala_)
AND OTHERS 74

VII. MITES: THE HARVEST-MITE (_Trombidium_) 87

VIII. MITES: ENDO-PARASITIC MITES (_Demodex_, _Sarcoptes_) 97

IX. TICKS: _ARGASIDAE_, _IXODIDAE_ 112

X. LEECHES: THE MEDICINAL LEECH (_Hirudo medicinalis_) 123

XI. LEECHES: THE MEDICINAL LEECH (_continued_) 136

XII. LEECHES: _Limnatis nilotica_, _Haemadipsa zeylanica_ 149

INDEX 163

ILLUSTRATIONS

FIG. PAGE
Photograph of enlarged model of the house-fly (_Musca
domestica_) _Frontispiece_

1. _Pediculus vestimenti_ 2

2. _Pediculus vestimenti_ (dorsal and ventral views) 6

3. _Cimex lectularius_ (male) 24

4. Egg of _Cimex lectularius_ 28

5. Newly hatched young of _Cimex lectularius_ 29

6. _Pulex irritans_ (female) 36

7. Larva of _Pulex irritans_ 39

8. Pupa of flea 41

9. _Ceratophyllus gallinulae_ (male and female) 44

10. _Ephestia kühniella._ Moth-infested biscuit 47

11. _Ephestia kühniella_ 49

12. _Ephestia kühniella_ (larva and pupa) 50

13. _Corcyra cephalonica._ Moth-infested biscuit 51

14. Eggs of _Musca domestica_ 59

15. Eggs of _M. domestica_ 60

16. Abdomen of female house-fly, showing the extended
ovipositor 61

17. Mature larva of _M. domestica_ 62

18. ‘Nymph’ of _M. domestica_ dissected out of pupal-case
about thirty hours after pupation 63

19. Pupal-case or puparium of _M. domestica_ from which
the imago has emerged 64

20. _M. domestica_ in the act of regurgitating food 65

21. Foot of a fly, showing hairs bearing bacteria 69

22. Chart illustrating the relation of the numerical
abundance of house-flies to summer diarrhoea in
the city of Manchester in 1904 71

23. Latrine-fly (_Fannia scalaris_) 75

24. Larva of _F. canicularis_ 76

25. Blow-fly or blue-bottle (_Calliphora erythrocephala_) 77

26. Green-bottle (_Lucilia caesar_) 79

27. Flesh-fly (_Sarcophaga carnaria_) 80

28. Side view of blow-fly (_Calliphora erythrocephala_) 81

29. _Trombidium holosericeum_ (female) 89

30. _Leptus autumnalis_ = larva of _Trombidium holosericeum_ 90

31. _Leptus autumnalis_, with the so-called proboscis 92

32. _Leptus autumnalis_ 93

33. _Pediculoides ventricosus_ (male and female) 96

34. _Demodex_ in hair-follicle of dog. _Demodex
folliculorum_ 98

35. _Sarcoptes scabiei_ (female) 100

36. _Sarcoptes scabiei_ (male) 101

37. One of the legs of _Sarcoptes scabiei_ showing the
stalked sucker and the curious ‘cross-gartering.’ 102

38. A diagrammatic view of the tunnel made by the female
of _Sarcoptes scabiei_, with the eggs she has laid
behind her as she burrows deeper and deeper 104

39. A female _Sarcoptes scabiei_, with four eggs in
different stages of development 105

40. _Nephrophages sanguinarius_ (male and female) 110

41. Evolution of _Argas persicus_ 113

42. _Ixodes ricinus_ (mouth-parts of the female) 114

43. _Argas reflexus_ (female) 115

44. _Ornithodorus moubata_ (an unfed female) 116

45. _Ornithodorus moubata_ (female) 117

46. _Ixodes ricinus_ (male and female) 118

47. _Ixodiphagus caucurtei_ laying eggs in the nymph of
_Ixodes ricinus_ 120

48. _Hirudo medicinalis_ 124

49. View of the internal organs of _Hirudo medicinalis_ 126

50. Head of a leech (_Hirudo medicinalis_) 130

51. _Hirudo medicinalis_ 133

52. Cocoon of the medicinal leech 142

53. A _Nephelis_ forming its cocoon and withdrawing
from it 143

54. Cocoons of _Nephelis_ 144

55. A leech-farm in the south of France 145

56. _Glossosiphonia heteroclita_, with eggs and emerging
embryos 146

57. _Helobdella stagnalis_, with adhering young 147

58. _Limnatis nilotica_ 150

59. Anterior sucker of _Hirudo medicinalis_ 152

60. The Japanese variety of _Haemadipsa zeylanica_ 156

61. _Haemadipsa zeylanica_ (from above) 157

62. _Haemadipsa zeylanica_ (head) 158

63. _Haemadipsa zeylanica_ (land-leeches), on the earth 159

THE
MINOR HORRORS OF WAR