320 PEDICULTD.5]— LICE. 



children who are troubled with them, from a variety of com- 

 plaints to which they would be liable !^ 



As an attempt toward discovering the intention of Provi- 

 dence in permitting the frequency of these tormenting ani- 

 mals, the following lines of Serenus may be given : 



See nature, kindly provident ordain 

 Her gentle stimulants to harmless pain ; 

 Lest Man, the slave of rest, should waste away 

 In torpid slumlaer life's important day ! 



Of the horrible disease, Phthiriasis, occasioned by myriads 

 of Lice, PedicuU, and sometimes by Mites, Acari, and Larvse 

 in general, I shall but mention that the inhuman Pheretrina, 

 Antiochus Epiphanes, the Dictator Sylla, the two Herods, 

 the Emperor Maximin, and Philip the Second were among 

 the number carried off by it. 



Quintus Serenus speaks thus of the death of Sylla : 



Great Sylla too the fatal scourge hath known; 

 Slain by a host far mightier than his own. 



According to Pliny, Nits are destroyed by using dog's 

 fat, eating serpents cooked like eels, or else taking their 

 sloughs in drink. ^ 



In Leyden's Notes to Complayntof Scotland are recorded 

 the following few rhymes of the Gyre-carlin — the bug-bear 

 of King James Y. 



The Mouse, the Louse, and Little Rede, 

 Were a' to mak' a gruel in a lead. 



The two first associates desire Little Rede to go to the 

 door, to "see what he could see." He declares that he saw 

 the gyre-carlin coming, 



With spade, and shool, and trowel, 

 To lick up a' the gruel. 



Upon which the party disperse : 



The Louse to the claith, 



And the Mouse to the wa', 

 Little Rede behind the door, 



And licket up a'.^ 



1 Shaw, Zool, vi.454. 



2 Nat. Hist., xxix. (75). 



3 Chambers' Fop. Rhymes of Scot!., p. 282-3. Edit, of 1841, p. 243. 



