70 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



sioned by short hairs, or fragments of hair, brought by the wind.^ Of 

 this nature also, is the famous Pitijocampa of the ancients, the moth of 

 the fir {Cnetkocampa Pityocamjxi), the hairs of which are said to occasion 

 a very intense degree of pain, heat, fever, itching, and restlessness. It was • 

 accounted by the Romans a very deleterious poison, as is evident from the 

 circumstance of the Cornelian law " De sicariis" being extended to persons 

 who administered Piti/ocampa.^ 



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 giving the following 

 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 ofteu observed when she thus 

 cruelly amused herself, that the odour of the burning spiders had so much 

 affected her head, that all objects seemed lo turn roLUid, which was occa- 

 sionally 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 former 

 became inflamed, the latter swelled excessively', even the tongue and gums 

 were slightly affected, and a continual vomiting attentled these symptoms. 

 In spite of every remedy the swelhng of the lips continued to increase, 

 till at length an old woman, by the simple apjilication for fifteen days of 

 the leaves and juice of plantain, together with some spider's web, ran 

 away with all the glory of the cure.^ Ulloa gives us a remarkable account 

 of a species of spider, or perhaps mite, of a fiery red colour, common in 

 Popayan, called Coya or Coyba, and usually founil in the corners of walls 

 and among the herbage, the venom of vvhich is of such malignity, that on 

 crushing the insect, if any fall on the skin of either man or beast, it imme- 

 diately penetrates into the flesh, and causes large tumours, 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 tiiem, or crawling on their neck or face, not so much as to 

 lift u[) their hand to the place, tiie 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 traveller points 

 out the spot where he feels the creature to one of his companions, who, 

 if it be a Coya, blows it away. If this account does not exaggerate the 



1 Reaum. ii. 191. 195. According to Dr. Nicholai, the processionary caterpillars 

 also secrete from the external surface of their skin a sharp juice which assumes a 

 farinaceous form, and is very injurious to those that inspii-e it, causing workmen, who 

 are occupied in woods where the caterpillars are numerous, to sicken very rapidly. 

 (Burmeister, Manual of Ent. 510.) 



2 Moufifet, 185. Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. xxxviii. c. 9. Amoreux, 158. 

 5 Amoreux. 210—212. 



