BUGS. Ill 



According to the observations made in the year 

 1687, by the celebrated Dutch philosopher, Leuwen- 

 hoeck, the female Louse, in the course of six days, 

 lays fifty white eggs, which are called Nits, and from 

 which, after six days more, proceed the young ones, 

 which are perfected in eighteen days. In this manner, 

 such a female may have the satisfaction of being 

 grandmother to a progeny of five thousand individuals 

 around her, in the short space of eight weeks. This 

 species is called the Head-louse (Pediculus Capitis). 



Another species, also a nuisance to the human 

 family, is the Body-louse (Pediculus Vestimentorum), 

 whose favourite dwelling is in the folds of the 

 shirt-collar, and which very often produces that 

 generally incurable disease called phthiriasis. It is 

 humbling to human pride, and the high conceit of 

 mortal man, to think that the poor and the rich, the 

 ignorant and the wise, princes, kings, and emperors, 

 have been and are alike' subject to this misfortune. 

 Examples are not wanting : the Dictator Sylla, the two 

 Herods of Judea, the Roman emperor Maximian, and 

 the mighty Philip II., king of Spain, and many others, 

 have been carried off by this disgusting, incurable 

 malady, in which the whole human body becomes 

 covered with sores, and is literally eaten up alive by 

 these insects. See " Maladies de la peau par Alibert, 

 1806." 



