CIMICID^ — BED-BUGS. 267 



ablj beneficial to persons who have been stung by serpents. 

 Of the various recipes j2^iven in reference to these insects, 

 the least revolting are the application of them externally to 

 the wound, with the blood of a tortoise; the employment of 

 them as a fumigation to make leeches loose their hold ; and 

 the administering of them to animals in drink when a leech 

 has been accidentally swallowed. Some persons, however, 

 go so far as to crush Bugs with salt and woman's milk, and 

 anoint the eyes with the mixture ; in combination, too, 

 with honey and oil of roses, they use them as an injection 

 for the ears. Field-bugs, again, and those found upon the 

 mallow (perhaps the Cimex jDratennis is meant here ; neither 

 this nor the Gimex junipermus, the G. bra^sicse, or the 

 Lygaeus hyoscami, has the offensive smell of the G. lectula- 

 rius) are burnt, and the ashes mixed with oil of roses as an 

 injection for the ears. 



"As to the other remedial virtues attributed to Bugs for 

 the cure of vomiting, quartan fevers, and other diseases, 

 although we find recommendations given to swallow them 

 in an egg, some wax, or in a bean,^ I look upon them as 

 utterly unfounded, and not worthy of further notice. They 

 are employed, however, for the treatment of lethargy, and 

 with some fair reason, as they successfully neutralize the 

 narcotic effects of the poison of the asp ; for this purpose 

 seven of them are administered in a cyathus of water; but 

 in the case of children, only four. In cases, too, of stran- 

 gury they have been injected into the urinarychannel.^ So 

 true it is that nature, that universal parent, has engendered 

 nothing without some powerful reason or other. In addi- 

 tion to these particulars, a couple of Bugs, it is said, at- 

 tached to the left arm in some wool that has been stolen 

 from the shepherds, will effectually cure nocturnal fevers ; 

 while those recurrent in the daytime may be treated with 

 equal success by inclosing the Bags in a piece of russet- 

 colored cloth. "^ 



1 Dr. James says: "Given to the number of seven, as food with 

 beans, they help those who are afflicted with a quartan ague, if they 

 be eaten before the accession of the fit." — 3fed. Diet. 



2 An excellent method, Ajasson remarks, of adding to the tortures 

 of the patient. 



3 Pliny, Nat. Hist., xxix. 17. Bostock and Riley's Trans., v. 893. 



