40 On the Furia hifernalis, 



pened, in order to perpetuate the circumstance, gave to the ani- 

 mal by which he had been so grievously wounded, the name of 

 Furia infernalis ; by which appellation it is introduced into his 

 celebrated " Systema NaturcB^'' under the class of Worms.* 



After Linnceus, many celebrated naturalists eagerly embraced 

 the idea of the existence of the /Vria, and dissertations on it 

 are to be found in their works, and even in the Transactions 

 of the learned societies at Stockholm and Upsala -|-, in which 

 several cases were adduced of persons who had been similarly 

 attacked, by a kind of worm of the thickness of a hair, and of 

 a greyish colour, the extremities being black. The animal ap- 

 peared only to be an inhabitant of marshy spots, whence, by 

 some means or other, it darted forth upon the exposed parts of 

 the bodies of those who happened to be within its reach, burying 

 itself with singular rapidity in the flesh, and occasioning tor- 

 ments so excruciating as to throw its unfortunate victim into a 

 state of madness. 



Of those who maintained the existence of the furia was So- 

 lander, the pupil of Linnaeus ; and his dissertation on this sub- 

 ject in the Upsala Transactions shews the little doubt he had 

 with regard to this animal. In this paper he not only adduces 

 several well authenticated instances, when he was in the north 

 of Sweden, of persons who had been wounded, and even fatal- 

 ly, by the Juria, but even details the nature and appearance of 

 the wound inflicted, the symptoms that ensued, and the reme- 

 dies to which recourse was had ; and asserts his having himself 



• " The Furia infernalis inhabits the vast marshy plains of Bothnia and 

 Finland, where it crawls up shrubs and sedge-grass, and, being carried for- 

 ward by the wind, penetrates suddenly into such exposed parts of men and 

 horses as are not perpendicularly situated. It quickly buries itself under the 

 skin, leaving a black point where it had entered ; which is soon succeeded by 

 the most excruciating pains, inflammation and gangrene of the part, swoon- 

 ing, and death. This all happens in the course of a day or two, frequently 

 within a few hours, unless the animal be immediately extracted, which is ef- 

 fected with great caution and difficulty, by applying a poultice of curds or 



cheese ; or carefully dissecting between the muscles where it has entered." 



Lin. Syst Nat. 



-f Kongl. Vetenskap's Academiens nya handlingar, vol. xvi. p. 1 43. Nova 

 Acta Upsal. vol. i. p. 44. Opuscula Zoologica, vol. xvii. art. 7- Miracula 

 Insectorum, in the Amoenltates Academicge, vol. iii. 



