268 CmiClDJE — BED-BUGS. 



Guettard, a French commentator on Pliny, recommends 

 Bugs to be taken internally for hysteria; and Dr. James 

 says " the smell of them relieves under hysterical suffoca- 

 tions!"^ 



At the present time the Bed-bug is sometimes given by 

 the country people of Ohio as a cure for the fever and ague. 



Moufet says: "The verses of Quintus Serenus show that 

 they are good for tertian agues : 



Shame not to drink three Wall-Hce mixt with wine, 

 And garlick bruised together at noon-day. 



Moreover a bruised Wall-louse with an egg, repine 

 Not for to take, 'tis loathsome, yet full good I say. 



" Gesner in his writings confirms this experiment, having 

 made trial of it among the common and meaner sort of 

 people in the country. The ancients gave seven to those 

 that were taken with a lethargy, in a cup of water, and four 

 to children. Pliny and Serenus consent to this in these 

 verses : 



Some men prescribe seven Wall-lice for to drink, 

 Mingled with water, and one cup they think 

 Is belter than with drowsy deatii to sink."^ 



Anatolius says that if an ox, or other quadruped, swal- 

 lows a leech in drinking, having pounded some Bugs, let 

 the animal smell them, and he immediately throws up the 

 leech. ^ 



Mr. Mayhew, in his work on the London poor and their 

 labor, has an interesting chapter devoted to the Destroyers 

 of Yermin, from which we have taken the liberty of quoting 

 pretty largely in the course of this work. His statements 

 can be relied on, and we give them as nearly in his own 

 words as possible. Concerning Bugs and Fleas, and the 

 trade carried on in the manufacture and vending of poisons 

 to destroy these pests, we learn from him : The vending of 

 bug-poison in the London streets is seldom followed as a 

 regular source of living. He has met with persons who re- 

 membered to have seen men selling packets of vermin poi- 

 son ; but to find out the venders themselves was next to an 



1 Jfed. Diet. 



2 Theatr. Ins., p. 270-1. Topsel's Hist, of Beasts, p. 1098. 

 s Owen's Geoponika, ii. 157. 



