lOS DIRECT IXJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. . 



less than symptoms of the plague. Being shown the 

 living cause of their fright, their fears gave place to 

 mirth and laughter^. Commerce, with many good 

 things, has also introduced artiongst us many great 

 evils, of which noxious insects form no small part ; and 

 one of her worst presents were doubtless the disgust- 

 ing animals now before us. They seem, indeed, as the 

 above fact proves, to have been productive of greater 

 alarm at first tlian miscliicf, at least if we may judge 

 from the change of name whicli took place upon their 

 becoming common. Their original English name was 

 Chinche or TVaU-Ioiise ^ ; and the term Bug, which is 

 a Celtic word, signifying a ghost or goblin, was applied 

 to them after Ray's time, most probably because they 

 were considered as " terrors by night '^." But how- 

 ever horrible bugs may have been in the estimation of 

 some, or nauseating in that of others, many of the good 

 people of London seem to regard them with the great- 

 est apathy, and take very little pains to get rid of them ; 

 not generally, however, it is to be hoped, to such an 

 extent as the predecessor of a correspondent in Ni- 

 cholson's Journal., who found his house so dreadfully 

 infested by them, that it resembled the Banian hospital 

 at Surat'', all his endeavours to destroy them being at 



"^ Thcnlr. Ins. 270. This happened in 1503; which circumstance re- 

 futes Sou tliall's opinion that bu;;svvere not known in England before 1670. 



'' llai. Hist. Ins.!. Mouftet,'269. They were called also j;w»«s, from the 

 Trench punciise. " Hence our English word Bug-bear. 



In MaUhews's Biblcy Ps. xci. 5. is rendered, " Thou shalt not nede to be 

 afraid of any bugs by night." The word in this sense often occurs in 

 Shakespear, Winter s Tale, act iii. sc.2. 3 Hen. VI. act v. sc. 2. Hamkt, 

 act V. sc. 2. See Donee's Illustrativrts of S/iakespear, i. 329. 



** The Banian hospital at Surat is a most remarkable institution. At 



