86 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



cerned in the various cases that have been handed 

 down to us under the conmion name of Phifmiasis , 

 As the subject of maladies connected with in^i-cts, or 

 produced by them, is both curious and inttresUng-, al- 

 though no writer, that I am aware of, has given it 

 full consideration, and at the same time falls in with 

 my general design, I hope you will not regard me as 

 guilty of presumption, and of intruding into the pro- 

 vince of u)edical men, if I enter rather largely iuto it, 

 and state to you the reasons that have induced me to 

 embrace the above hypothesis, leaving >ou full liberty 

 to reject it if you do not find it consonant to reason and 

 fact. The three kinds of insects to which I allude, as 

 concerned in cases that have been deemed Phthiriasis, 

 are lice {Pediculi, L.)^ niites {Acarif L.), and Lance in 

 general. 



As far as the habits of the genus Pedicidus, whether 

 inhabiting man or the inferior animals, are at rresent 

 known, it does not appear, from any well ascertained 

 fact, that the species belonging to it are ever suhciila- 

 neous. For this observation, as far as it relates to 

 man, I can produce the highest medical authority. 

 " The louse feeds on the surface of the skin," says the 

 learned Dr. Mead in his 3Jedica Sacra ; and Dr. Wil- 

 lan, in his palmary work on Culatuoas Diseases, re- 

 marks with respect to the body-louse, " tliat the nits, 

 or eggs, are deposited on the small hairs of the skin," 

 and that " the animals are found on the skin, or on the 

 linen, and not under the cuticle, as some authors have 

 represented," And he further ob?rrves, that " many 

 marvellous stories are related by Forestus, Schenkius 

 and others respecting lice bred under the skin, and dia- 



