DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 125 



pean species is seldom attended, except to minor ani- 

 mals, by any very serious consequences ; yet when it is 

 communicated by tbe scorpion of warmer climates it 

 produces more baneful effects. The sting of certain 

 kinds common in South America causes fevers, numb- 

 ness in various parts of the body, tumours in the tongue, 

 and dimness of sight, which symptoms last from twenty- 

 four to forty-eight hours. The only means of saving 

 the lives of our soldiers who were stung by them in 

 Egypt, was amputation. One species is said to occasion 

 madness ; and the black scorpion, both of South Ame- 

 rica and Ceylon, frequently inflicts a mortal wound ^. 

 No known animal is more cruel and ferocious in its man- 

 ners ; they kill and devour their own young without pity 

 as soon as they are born, and they are equally savage to 

 their fellows when grown up. Terrible however and re- 

 volting as these creatures appear, we are gravely told 

 by Naude, that there is a species of scorpion in Italy 

 wliich is domesticated, and put between the sheets to 

 cool the beds during the heats of summer'' ! ! 



I must next say something of insects that annoy us 

 solely by their jwisos. Of this description is Galeodes 

 araneoides which is related to the scorpion, although 

 devoid of a sting. The bite of this animal, which is a 

 native of the Cape of Good Hope and of Russia'^, is re- 

 presented to be often fatal both to man and beast. An- 



a UUoa's Voy. i. 61, 62. Dr. Clarke's Travels^ i. 486. Amoreiix, 

 197. Mr. W. S. MacLeay relates to me that soon after his arrival 

 at the Havana he was stung by an immense scorpion, but was agree- 

 ably surprised to find the pain considerably less than the sting of a 

 wasp, and of incomparably sliorter duration. 



*• Andrews's Anecdotes, 427. See on the subject of Scorpions Amo- 

 reux, 41-54. 176-205. ' Fab. Suj}pl. 294. 2. 



