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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



A principal city in Ionia was once abandoned on 

 account of the fleas. In Purchas's " Pilgrims " we 

 read that the Jews were not permitted to burn fleas 

 iu the flame of their lamps on the Sabbath. It is 

 therefore probable that they did so to a considerable 

 extent on the other six days of the week. On one 

 occasion, Iwan Vasilowich sent to the city of 

 Moscow to provide for him a measure full of fleas 

 for a medicine. The inhabitants answered that it 

 was impossible, and if they could get them, yet they 

 could not measure them because of their leaping 

 out. Upon this the city was mulcted of seven 

 thousand roubles,— an early example of " requisi- 

 tions." 



Performing fleas have also had their history 

 written, for Mr. Frank Buckland, in the third series 

 of his amusing " Curiosities of Natural History," 

 devotes a chapter to the subject. Both before and 

 since chroniclers have been found for the marvels 

 of flea-life. Purchas states that an Egyptian artisan 

 received a garment of cloth of gold for binding a 

 flea in a chain. Time and space forbid our entering 

 upon the details of fleas in harness. 



It is generally admitted that, however clever fleas 

 may be, they are at best sorry companions, and 

 therefore willing ears will be turned towards him 

 who will declare methods for their sure and certain 

 expatriation. Before attempting this we will call 

 to the remembrance of our readers poor Humphrey's 

 pleasantry on this point. " A notable projector 

 became notable by one project only, which was a 

 certain specific for the killing of fleas, and it was in 

 form of a powder, and sold in papers, with plain 

 directions for use, as followeth : the flea was to be 

 held conveniently between the thumb and finger of 

 the left hand, and to the end of the trunk or pro- 

 boscis, which protrudeth in the flea, somewhat as 

 the elephant's doth, a very small quantity of the 

 powder was to be put from between the thumb and 

 finger of the right hand. And the deviser under- 

 took, if any flea to whom his powder was so ad- 

 ministered should prove to have afterwards bitten 

 a purchaser who used it, then that purchaser should 

 have another paper of the said powder gratis. And 

 it chanced that the first paper thereof was bought 

 idly, as it were, by an old woman ; and she, without 

 meaning to injure the inventor or his remedy, but 

 of her mere harmlessness, did innocently ask him 

 whether, when she had caught the flea, and after 

 she had got it, as before described, if she should 

 kill it with her nail it would not be as well. Where- 

 upon the ingenious inventor was so astonished by 

 the question, that, not knowing what to answer on 

 the sudden occasion, he said with truth to this 

 effect, that without doubt her way would do too." 

 And according to the belief of poor Humphrey, there 

 is not yet any device more certain or better for de- 

 stroying a flea, when thou hast captured him, than 

 the ancient manner of the old woman's, or instead 



thereof, the drowning of him in fair water, if thou 

 hast it by thee at the time. 



Even as long ago as the time of Pliny fleas were 

 but too plentiful, and men sought anxiously for 

 charms and remedies to abate their annoyance. One 

 of these is given by Pliny to the following effect. 

 " If a man, the first time that he heareth the cuckoo, 

 presently stay his right foot in the very place where 

 it was when he heard her, and withal mark out the 

 point and just proportion of the said foot upon the 

 ground as it stood, and then dig up the earth under 

 it within the said compass, look what chamber or 

 room of the house is strewed with the said mould, 

 there will no fleas breed there." There is some con- 

 solation even in the hope of such a remedy proving 

 effectual, notwithstanding that it is contingent upon 

 the note of the cuckoo. A more amusing mode is 

 that attributed to a sporting Queen of Sweden, for 

 in the arsenal at Stockholm is exhibited a miniature 

 piece of ordnance four or five inches in length, with 

 which, report says, on the authority of Linnaeus, 

 that Queen Christiana used to cannonade fleas. 



Various plants, under the name of " Fleabane," 

 have obtained a reputation for the destruction of 

 fleas. One of these is alluded to by old Tusser iu 

 the following lines : — 



" While wormwood hath seed, get a handfull or twaine, 

 To save against March, to make flea to refraine : 

 Where chambere is sweeped, and wormwood is strown, 

 No flea for his life dare abide to be known." 



In Dalecarlia the inhabitants place the skins of 

 hares in their apartments, in which the fleas take 

 refuge, so that they are easily destroyed by the im- 

 mersion of the skin in scalding water. Recently 

 Mr. B. T. Lowne has recommended a little chlo- 

 roform to be placed on sponge or cotton wool and 

 laid in the bed where fleas delight to congregate, 

 inasmuch as it appears to be a medicament for 

 which they are by no means partial. 



We have written very little indeed, as yet, of the 

 scientific history of the flea ; nor is it our intention 

 to dilate upon that phase of the subject. At a 

 meeting of the Quekett Microscopical Club in 

 February last, a very interesting paper was read by 

 Mr. Furlonge on some points in the anatomy of the 

 common bed-flea (Pule.v irritans) which provoked a 

 rather animated discussion. For that kind of in- 

 formation we must refer to the paper itself when 

 published in the journal of the Club. Some persons 

 suppose that there is but one kind or species of flea, 

 found on man and all the inferior animals, whereas 

 there are numerous species, and of these we shall 

 enumerate a few. 



First, and foremost, there is the Human Flea 

 {Pules irritans), which annoys sensitive humanity, 

 and is much better known than respected. It is 

 principally of these that Mouffet writes in his 

 "Theatre of Insects," when he says, "The lesser, 

 leaner, and younger they are the sharper they bite, 



