106 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



In these cases the Injury is the consequence of irritation produced by 

 the hair of the animal ; but there are facts on record, which prove that 

 the juices of many insects are equally deleterious. Amoreux, from a work 

 of Turner, an English writer on cutaneous diseases, has given the follow- 

 ing remarkable history of the ill effects produced by those of spiders. 

 When Turner was a young practitioner, he was called to visit a woman, 

 whose custom it was, every time she went into the cellar with a candle, 

 to burn the spiders and their webs. She had often observed, when she 

 thus cruelly amused herself, that the odor of the burning spiders had so 

 much affected her head, that all objects seemed to turn round, which was 

 occasionally succeeded by faintings, cold sweats, and slight vomitings : 

 but, notwithstanding this, she found so much pleasure in tormenting these 

 poor animals, that nothing could cure her of this madness, till she met 

 with the following accident : the legs of one of these unhappy spiders 

 happened to stick in the candle, so that it could not disengage itself; and 

 the body at length bursting, the venom was ejaculated into the eyes and 

 upon the lips of its persecutrix. In consequence of this, one of the for- 

 mer became inflamed, the latter swelled excessively, even the tongue and 

 gums were slightly affected, and a continual vomiting attended these 

 symptoms. In spite of every remedy the swelling of the lips continued 

 to increase, till at length an old woman, by the simple application for 

 Bfteen days of the leaves and juice of plantain, together with some spider's 

 web, ran away with all the glory of the cure.^ UUoa gives us a remark- 

 able account of a species of spider, or perhaps mite, of a fiery red color, 

 common in Popayan, called Coya or Coyha, and usually found in the 

 corners of walls and among the herbage, the venom of which is of such 

 malignity, that on crushing the insect, if any fall on the skin of either 

 man or beast, it immediately penetrates into the flesh, and causes large 

 tumors, which are soon succeeded by death. Yet, he further observes, 

 if it be crushed between the palms of the hands, which are usually callous, 

 no bad consequence ensues. People who travel along the valleys of the 

 Neyba, where these insects abound, are warned by their Indian attendants, 

 if they feel any thing stinging them, or crawling on their neck or face, 

 not so much as to lift up their hand to the place, the texture of the Coya 

 being so delicate that the least force causes them to burst, without which 

 there is no danger, as they seem otherwise harmless animals. The tra- 

 veler points out the spot where he feels the creature to one of his com- 

 panions, who, if it be a Coya, blows it away. If this account does not 

 exaggerate the deleterious quality of the juices of this insect, it is the most 

 venomous animal that is known ; for he describes it as much smaller than 

 a bug. The only remedy to which the natives have recourse for prevent- 

 ing the ill effects arising from its venom is, on the first appearance of the 

 swelling, to swing the patient over the flame of straw or long grass, which 

 they do with great dexterity : after this operation he is reckoned to be out 

 of danger.^ — The poisoned arrows which Indians employ against their 



» Amoreux, 210—212. 



* Ulloa's Voyage, b. vi. c. 3. Hamilton {Travels in Colombia, as quoted in the Literary 

 Gazette, April 28, 1827) also mentions a spider called the Caya, rather large, found in the 

 broken ground and among the rocks, from the body of which a poison so active is emitted, 

 that men and mules have died in an hour or two after the venomous moisture had fallen on 

 them. This is evidently the same insect with that mentioned by Ulloa, and confirms the 

 above account of its venomous eifects. 



