HEARING IN INSECTS. 99 



of which Mr Stephens enumerates ten species found 

 in Britain, we know at least two species of a very 

 different genus [Atropos, Leach), also indigenous, 

 which produce the so much dreaded sound. 



Sir Thomas Browne considered the subject of the 

 death-watch of great importance, and remarks that 

 the man ' who could eradicate this error from the 

 minds of the people, would save from many a cold 

 sweat the meticulous heads of nurses and grand- 

 mothers,'* as such persons are firm in the belief, 

 that — 



The solemn death-watch clicks the hour of death. 



Swifl endeavoured to perform this useful task by 

 means of ridicule. His description, suggested, it 

 would appear, by the old song of ' A cobbler there 

 was, and he lived in a stall, ' runs thus : — 



' A wood worm 



That lies in old wood, like a hare in her form, 

 With teeth or with claws, it will bite, it will scratch ; 

 And chambermaids christen this worm a death-watch ; 

 Because, like a watch, it always cries click. 

 Then woe be to those in the house that are sick ! 

 For, sure as a gun, they will give up the ghost, 

 If the maggot cries click when it scratches the post. 

 But a kettle of scalding hot water injected, 

 Infallibly cures the timber affected : 

 The omen is broken, the danger is over. 

 The maggot will die, and the sick will recover.' t 



It may be well to give a few notices from natural- 

 ists who have observed the proceedings of those 

 insects. ' 1 possess, ' says Swammerdam, ' a small 

 beetle, which, having firmly and strongly fixed its 

 foremost legs, and bent and put its head through 

 the space between them, makes a continual noise in 



* Vulgar Errors. 

 t Quoted in Kirby and Spence, Intr. ii, 386. 



