LICE 119 



That He, whose wounds do sting, and burn and smart, 

 Is but a worm, like that of the sheep's head. 

 Which underneath the curving horn is bred, 

 And deeply gnaws the tissue of the brain; 

 TTius does Love madden with excess of pain." 



Shepherds say that, when at certain times sheep become 

 frantic, as if stung by hornets, their excitement is due to 

 unusual activity on the part of the worms, infesting the 

 head. They are not so numerous as those of the deer, 

 and seldom exceed tw^elve or fifteen at the most. And 

 here please remember that I limit my statements to those 

 things, that I have seen with my own eyes, and make no 

 affirmations nor denials concerning anything else. 



That same vital force, that produces the worms of 

 which I have been speaking is the possible cause of those 

 other abominable and odious creatures called " t^^etpcs " 

 by the Greeks, and which infest the external parts of 

 men, quadrupeds and birds; but, if I must express my 

 thought freely, I will say that I am more inclined to 

 believe with the learned Johann Sperling, that they 

 originate from the eggs of the females, fertilized by 

 coition. And though Aristotle, followed by most mod- 

 erns, gave out that those eggs, or nits as they are called, 

 never produce any sort of animal, he most certainly 

 erred, for they multiply ad infinitum, and it seems use- 

 less to prove such an obvious fact. The hair of quad- 

 rupeds, and the plumage of birds, are frequently found 

 to be full of those nits, which, though so minute that 

 one needs good eyes to discover them, by the aid of the 

 microscope they can be seen very well, and the full eggs 

 be distinguished from those that have hatched. Any- 

 one inclined to dispute this fact, and to cry out that there 

 was some distortion, produced by the microscope, can 



