ORDER III. 



ORTHOPTERA. 



Blattidae — Cockroaches. 



Sloane tells us the Indians of Jamaica drink the ashes 

 of Cockroaches in physic : bruise and mix them with sugar 

 and apply them to ulcers and cancers to suppurate ; and 

 are said also to give them to kill worms in children.^ Dr. 

 James, quoting Dioscorides, Lib. II. cap. 38, remarks: 

 "The inside of the Blatta (B.foetida, Monf 138), which 

 is found in bake-houses, bruised or boiled in oil, and dropped 

 into the ears, eases the pains thereof "^ It is most probable 

 the insect now called Blatta is not at all meant by either of 

 the above gentlemen. The Blatta of Dioscorides is quite 

 likely the Blatta of Pliny, which has been with good reason 

 conjectured to be the modern Blaps mortisaga — the com- 

 mon Church -yard beetle. 



In England, the hedge-hog, Erinaceus Europaeus, 

 from its fondness for insects and its nocturnal habits, is 

 often kept domesticated in kitchens to destroy the Cock- 

 roaches with which they are infested ; and the housekeepers 

 of Jamaica, as we are informed by Sir Hans Sloane, for the 

 same reasons and purpose, keep large spiders in their 

 houses.^ A species of monkey, Simia jacchus, and a 

 species of lemur, L. iardigradus, are also made use of for 

 destroying these insects, especially on board ships. '^ Mr. 

 Neill, in the Magazine of Natural History, in his account 

 of the above-mentioned species of monkey, says : " By chance 

 we observed it devouring a large Cockroach, which it had 

 caught running along the deck of the vessel; and, from this 

 time to nearly the end of the voyage, a space of four or five 



1 Hist, of Jam., ii. 204. 



2 Med. Diet. 



3 Ilist. of Jam , ii. 204. 



* Baird's Cyclop, of Nat. Set. 



(78) 



