482 Natural History in foreign Countries : — 



Scorpions &re frequently met with, but are little feared ; as 

 people are generally on their guard when meddling with 

 things or places in which they are apt to conceal themselves. 

 On one occasion, I knew a lady stung when drawing on her 

 glove, in a finger of which a scorpion had concealed itself; at 

 another time, a child of mine cried out lustily, directly after 

 the nurse had put his boot on ; and on taking it off, a scorpion 

 was found, which had stung his toe. The greatest number of 

 scorpions I ever saw was on board the ship in which 1 came 

 to England in 1821. She had a large quantity of logwood on 

 freight, in the hollows and crevices of which scorpions were 

 concealed. One evening a young gentleman who came home 

 under our care was upon his knees, in the aCt of saving the 

 Lord's prayer, previously to going to bed, when he suddenly 

 screamed violently (to Mrs. Sells's great terror), exclaiming, 

 " corpion ! corpion ! " clapping his hand to the upper part of 

 his thigh : on taking off his trousers, a large scorpion was 

 found. The part was directly rubbed with rum in which 

 scorpions were immersed, which is a favourite remedy with 

 sailors. I should say the sting of a scorpion is commonly not 

 so severe as that of a wasp. 



The centipede is not uncommon; but I rarely knew any one 

 bitten by it. 



Flies. It is well known that flies will deposit their eggs on 

 any surface which affords a suitable nidus for them. I remem- 

 ber a gentleman's son who suffered severely from the larvae 

 (maggots) of a fly, which proceeded from eggs that had been 

 laid in the ear; but the most extraordinary case of this sort 

 which has come to my knowledge occurred in a negro man 

 at Kellitt's Estate, in Jamaica. He was a tradesman, and a 

 very intelligent fellow. When I first saw him, his nose and 

 cheeks were very much swollen, rendering his face hideous ; 

 and he suffered most severe pain. I immediately suspected the 

 cause, and soon succeeded in making the residence of the 

 maggots so uncomfortable to them, by application of turpen- 

 tine and olive oil, with green tobacco juice, up the nostrils, 

 that they came away gradually; but it occupied at least a 

 fortnight before the whole were removed, so deeply lodged 

 were they in the nasal passages. I desired the man to keep 

 a tally of the numbers of his tormentors; and he did so, I 

 have no doubt, faithfully, after which he handed it to me, and 

 it is still in my possession. It contains 23 crosses (X) for ten 

 each, and V for five, amounting to 235 larvae of, I believe, 

 the bluebotde fly. Almost all of them were full-grown, 

 and forming, perhaps, such a brood of maggots as never pro- 

 ceeded from any man's head before. Flies abound upon 



