86 PROCEEDINGS ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



closely connected with that dealing with external injuries by the 

 entrance of the ear by roaches, etc., as mentioned above, and 

 especially by injuries to the skin by secretions given off by cer- 

 tain species. Thus an African katydid exudes a clear yellowish 

 fluid from pores in the side of the body near the junction of the 

 thorax and abdomen which causes a quite severe eruption if it 

 comes into direct contact with the skin. The natives appreciate 

 and fear this property and its potency was verified experimentally 

 by Dr. H. Stannus, 10 who thinks extensive ulcerations of various 

 parts of the body may sometimes result from this cause when 

 proper medical advise is lacking. Certain earwigs are reported 

 by Dr. Wellman to be considered poisonous by the natives of 

 Angola, and Wellman himself thinks it possible that septic matter 

 may be introduced by a 'bite' from the powerful forceps of the 

 forficulid in question. 11 Hasselfc has written on an affection of the 

 lips of persons to whose mouths roaches are attracted for food or 

 drink. 12 



There are few Orthoptera recorded as the direct cause of disease 

 in man. In 1872 there was published in Philadelphia an eight 

 paged pamphlet which reads like a production of pre-Plinyan 

 days. 13 The writer contends that locusts and grasshoppers are 

 the prime cause of the eruptive diseases of living things. He 

 proves his assertions by biblical quotations and qualifies as a 

 learned scientist by various interesting statements, such as that 

 houseflies originate from the intestinal worms of man. A more 

 recent charge against Orthoptera as a direct cause of disease in 

 man was brought to the attention of this Society a year ago by 

 Dr. Howard. This was a letter from a correspondent who drank 

 a bottle of soda water and found a decayed roach in the bottom 

 which he considered the cause of Bright's disease, a malady with 

 which he was soon afterwards stricken. While the instances cited 

 above involve elements liable to just criticism, there are others 

 which are at least plausible and some doubtlessly well founded. 

 Thus literature records several cases where grasshoppers, during 

 great invasions, fell into the sea to be later cast ashore in such 

 immense numbers that the air was polluted by the decaying mass, 

 resulting in pestilential conditions costing the lives of many 

 people. Also in times of grasshopper invasions the insects be- 

 foul the roofs of houses with their excrement and the rain water 

 drained into cisterns from such roofs is defiled 14 and dysentery 



10 Bull. Ent. Research, Lond., vol. ii, p. 180 (1911). 



11 Ent. News, vol. xix, p. 32 (1908). 



12 Tidschr. voor Erit., vol. viii, p. 98-99 (1865). 



3 Rilcy, \V. D., Locusts and Grasshoppers. The beginning and the 

 end of the febrile or eruptive diseases in living things. 



14 Bull. Bur. Ent. U. S. Dept. Agric., No. 22, p. 106 (1900). 



